Thursday, December 1, 2016

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made


UV 2137/10000 Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Psalm 139 v 15

Everything in this universe is engineered and configured to inspire a sense of awe at the scale at which the Lord thinks and executes. When we have a glimpse of the universe through the pictures captured by modern telescopes, we can only say, “ God is awesome.” When we have a glimpse of the micro-universe- our own bodies, we can only say, “ He is awesome.” When we look at the inner workings of the human mind, we can only say, “ He is awesome. “ The Lord knows us so intimately. He made every organ in our bodies carefully and wonderfully. When we think of this completeness of His knowledge and the intimacy of His attitudes towards us, we will be filled with wonder and curiosity about Him. We will want to explore our own selves so that we know more about our hidden Creator. But the Lord did not make His person secret but revealed Himself fully in the person of Jesus. Jesus told us all that we needed to know of Him so that He no longer remains a mystical, mysterious, shadowy person out there somewhere beyond the infiniteness of the physical world.

The Lord watches us from His throne that is hidden from our eyes. As we pray and thank the Lord for every organ in our bodies, every one of those infinite number of cells, we inoculate ourselves spiritually. It is amazing that our own attitudes towards the Lord can keep Him at an infinite distance from us or bring Him much closer to us than our own skin. He does not compartmentalise or surgically divide us into spirit, mind and body but He sees us as one whole being. His concern is our eternal well being and not just the prosperity and enjoyment of our physical substance on earth. We are out here on earth like children sent out by the parents to play in the garden till it is evening and we are called home to the Father. The garden is itself beautiful but it has many pits, pests, serpents and we need to avail of the Lord’s intimate knowledge of the territory to stay out of trouble. We can be playful but also careful and prayerful. The enemy has an unholy jealousy of us as God’s most priceless creation and he sets up ambushes and booby traps.

In the words of Job, “ The Lord has clothed us with skin and flesh and fenced us with bones and muscles.” Our tissues, muscles, bones, organs and skin have been amazingly arranged to form us. Many people work out hard in gyms with the hope that their rippling muscles would win the admiration of all who behold it but little do they themselves admire the splendidness of God’s creation. Or are we to be like the senseless beasts that do not know their Maker? The Lord honours our bodies as His temple. The implication is that there should be an ongoing continual worship and adoration happening within us. As the Psalmist puts it, “ All that is within me praise His holy name.” Our praise and thanksgiving of the Lord in good and healthy times needs to be as vocal, persistent, consistent as our cry for healing when our health fails.

Prateep V Philip

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