~ written by Connie Dunmyer
Several years ago, I had a doctor named “Dr. Bravo” (no – this is not the beginning of a joke – it really is his name). What I did not know about him before my visit was that he was a Believer. So there I am, chilly in my little paper gown, bare feet in the stirrups, ready for my annual exam. (Ladies, you know what I mean.) Then Dr. Bravo comes in and as he is examining me, he starts talking about how amazing God is, and the wonders and intricacies of the human body and how amazing God’s precision and creativity is. He was bold and he was excited about creation. He gave me a medical lesson, as well as a Bible lesson, all in the course of the few minutes I was being examined in that way. I seriously felt like I’d just been to church. And it occurred to me that THIS is how we should be in everyday life. That when we have opportunities to talk to people, and then walk away, those people should feel good – like they’ve been “to church”, not been given a pap or prostate exam.
Psalm 139:13-16 – 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
God is Creator … Originator … Inventor. The human body may be the single best proof of His existence and love. What’s more – God wove us together just the way we are. We are not an accident, nor the result of an impersonal biological process.
If my “unformed”, “hidden frame”, “not yet woven” – body was not hidden from God (because God is everywhere at the same time) . . . then how much more is He here with me now – seeing not only my frame, my body, but my spirit, my soul, my hurts, my joys, my needs, my sorrows, my fears, my doubts, my love language, my smile, my laugh, my tears, my internal organs, my love, my husband, my children, my grandchildren, my sphere of influence . . . ALL of this, AND ALL my days BEFORE even one of them came to be – before I was created!
Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew [chose] you…”
James Hufstetler said it this way:
“You are the result of the attentive, careful, thoughtful, intimate, detailed, creative work of God. Your personality, your sex, your height, your features, are what they are because God made them precisely that way. He made you the way he did because that is the way he wants you to be… Your genes and chromosomes and creaturely distinctives – even the shape of your nose and ears – are what they are by God’s design.”
Ok. Take a minute – close your eyes and ponder that. Absorb it as best as you can.
Because it will boggle the mind . . . my whole life – all the teasing, the being fat, moving from church to church to church to church as a child and as an adult, being the eldest sibling, marrying Dana, my babies & grandbabies, the vote at Flint, being called "damaged goods", Hurricane Andrew, Peachy Clean, California, the loss of pastoral ministry, GE, being sued, all the waiting, all the wondering, all the fighting, even my rebellion, Covid, our new home, and even these frustrating deer . . . . ALL of it was not only SEEN by the Creator, by the Father, ahead of time – BUT ORDAINED (holy ordered and decreed) before I ever took a breath.
Now THERE’s a mind-boggling, heart-thumping, breathtaking reason to fully trust God.
AND what’s more . . . it’s the SAME for every other person ever conceived on the planet in ALL of time. Which is not to say that God is always happy about the way we humans spend our lives – the good, the bad, or the ugly. BUT, God not only KNOWS about my sin and waywardness, (AND everyone else’s) – but He HAS and IS actually working THROUGH those events and actions.
Psalm 139:17-18
17 How precious to me are your thoughts [concerning me], O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
How precious to know that this Creator is even thinking of me. And it’s continuous. Wow!!
Bravo, God! Bravo!!