We are wonderfully made by Him

Psalm 139:13-15, NASB “For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.”
It seems that the older I get the less I know. That may be because the older I get the more I realize how much there is to know. In my younger years I was amazed about radio waves and internal combustion engines. Then came television, jet propulsion and penicillin. It never occurred to me that I would witness and wonder about the intelligence of God’s creation. I am amazed at man’s capability in going into space, building satellites that facilitate communications, business transactions and entertainment. But I am more amazed at what God has done, with the animal kingdom and with nature. A bird feeding station is located at the front of my home. Indigo Buntings, Cardinals, Golden Finchs and many other birds feed there. How do they know the feed is there? Why are the individual species exactly the same? Throughout the animal kingdom there is a purpose, (although I have doubts about mosquitoes.) I once looked across a deep valley in the Rockies at a snow field. The snow gradually melted and trickled down the mountain, joining other streams, and then flowing into a never dry river. This was near the Continental Divide so the melting snow on one side of the mountain flowed toward the Mississippi and on the other side it flowed toward the Atlantic. What an ingenious way nature has of supplying some of our water. We believe God created all that exists and when He created humans He gave orders to take care of His creation, (see Genesis 1:27-28) Worldwide, mankind isn’t doing well in doing that. 
Let us now think of the crown of His creation. You and I. When the Bible says we are created in God’s image, that image is not physical, God is Spirit. We share His attributes, such as free choice, rational love, an eternal nature, etc.. We are created in His image spiritually, but He created our bodies and souls too. I know very little about how our bodies work, but I’m happy my nostrils point down instead of up. I’m appreciative that there are two eyes to give us ability to judge distance and two ears to give us the ability to tell direction. As I understand it, the best medicine allows our bodies to fight disease. We indeed are wonderfully made. But there is more. He created our minds and our emotions to handle hardships.

The most severe emotion humans experience is grief. Grief is the reaction when we lose someone or something we love, usually a person. Our grief can rob us of sleep, of appetite, even our ability to reason. If we had no protection when grief comes it could very well disable us mentally, physically and socially. But we are wonderfully made and there is protection.
Individuals are just that, we are individuals, we are different. Because of that our grief may not be just like everyone else, but usually grief comes in five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. Briefly, when the loss first occurs there is a sense of unreliability. It’s more than we can immediately believe. Then there may come anger. Who are what is to blame for this terrible thing? How many times have we experienced the next stage, “Dear God, if You will just make this go away I’ll be a good person? When we find that we can’t bargain our loss away, we get depressed, and when we get through that depression we come to the final stage, acceptance. Even when we suffer loss, we need to “give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully.”
Rev. Gerold McBride is pastor of Lithium Baptist Church in Perry County. He may be reached by email at geroldmcbride@gmail.com or by phone at 573-547-8954.