What Does It Mean to Be Fearfully and Wonderfully Made?
Individually Made
In Psalm 139, David's praying to God and he says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” This speaks of the care and attention with which God has made us. By now, God has made billions of human beings, but we're not mass-produced. We're not churned out in a mechanistic way. Each one of us is individually handcrafted and there is something fearful about how we've been made.
What God Has to Say about Our Bodies
Sam Allberry
The Bible has a lot to say about the body. Organized around three categories—creation, fall, redemption—this book by Sam Allberry provides readers with a balanced theology of the body as they seek to glorify God in everything they do.
I’ve noticed that when someone has their first child and they hold them for the first time, there is a sense of awe. This baby is not intimidating, and certainly is not better than them in anything yet. But there's a sense of awe and fearfulness because they are suddenly aware of how precious and awesome this bundle is in their arms.
There's something fearful about us and that actually doesn't change when we grow up and are no longer as baby-ish as we once were. There is something so intricate and meaningful about how God has made us that we really should be in awe of that fact. David goes on to say, “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
The human body is not just a human body. It is an extraordinary work of art by the God of all creation.
It's actually worth saying something of God's unique creative capabilities in how each of us has been made. We should not take our existence for granted. We should not take one another's existence for granted. The human body is not just a human body. It is an extraordinary work of art by the God of all creation. It's a unique work of art. However we might be tempted to see ourselves, God actually sees us in a very different kind of way.
Sam Allberry is the author of What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves.
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