He Makes Everything Beautiful
May is one of my favorite social media seasons. Sure, it’s a little predictable and a maybe even cheesy, but I LOVE having my feeds flooded with prom pictures. It’s so fun watching young men and women alike (although let’s be real, the girls get all the attention) be transformed into these beauties embarking on this special right of passage.
I was recently chatting with a mom who had posted her daughter’s prom pictures and I told her how I had been struck by her daughter’s beauty. The young lady had chosen a bold, shimmering red dress that was form-fitting and fell perfectly into a court train behind her. Everything about her seemed perfect - at least in the photos.
My friend agreed with me and then said something that took me back nearly 30 years to my own prom, “I tried to tell her the same thing, but she never believes me when I tell her that she’s pretty. I wish she could see the same beauty in herself that I see in her.”
Some things have changed since my prom days (outrageous promposals for one) and apparently others have not because I remember feeling the exact same way. I am betting lots of you out there do too. No matter what our parents tried to tell us, we put absolutely no credibility in their encouraging statements. After all, they are our parents - not necessarily the most objective people in the world.
As I reflected on this paradigm, my thoughts turned to my own children and how they too don’t see themselves the way I see them. And then I realized God was nudging himself into the conversation, and I was prompted to consider how this same truth plays out in our spiritual life and our relationship with Him.
Just like children can’t fully understand how they delight their parents, I am convinced that we struggled to grasp the TRUTH that God delights in us. What would our lives look like if we truly believed that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made?” Psalm 139:14 gives us a clear answer to this question in the first section of this verse, the section that is often overlooked. It says this: “I will praise you BECAUSE I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
God’s word to us is clear. If we could believe, like our life depended on it, that He makes wonderful things - including us - then we would know our completeness and worship Him in response.
This is a tough one. Let’s try to spend some time meditating on this truth this week. My prayer is that it will sink deeper and deeper into our hearts as we encourage one another along the way.