Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Fearfully and wonderfully made

This past summer a friend of mine gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He was born a few days before my birthday and I earnestly prayed for his safe delievry. A week later, as I turned 29, he had his first heart surgery. As I write this he is about to go in for his second heart surgery and I will pray again for this little one and his family. 

Before he was born we heard the news that this sweet boy would have a serious heart defect and around the country and around the world people were interceding on his behalf. As I prayed for him and his family I began to wrestle with God. I was struggling with how this could be His plan. Then one day I read Psalm 139 and when I got to the famous verse 14, I read the familiar words "I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Something twisted inside--Really, God? What is so wonderful about babies who are born with life altering illness and defects? I wrestled with these verse and cried out to the Lord for understanding. 

And then, one day, I was reading the break down of that word wonderful in the original language and I read this-- that wonderful can also be translated, "distinct, marked out, separated, distinguished." My breath caught in my throat and tears welled up in my eyes--this is the meaning of wonderful!? Not wonderful the way we mean it--"I had a wonderful time," "That was a wonderful meal"--we often interchange wonderful for good or great when it really means so much more than that.
God counts our being as wonderful not because of outward perfection or goddness but because He has made each one of us distinct and marked out with a purpose. Two verses later we read, "in Your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me." The Lord who knows the very hairs on our heads, knows the number of our days and He makes them wonderful no matter how many or how few because they are marked out for us.

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