Fearfully And Wonderfully Made - All-Caps YOU

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

A Father’s Love

Right before my first day of high school, I walked into my bathroom to see a note written by my dad that was taped to the mirror. The note said,

Emma,

Nothing in a makeup bag could make you any more beautiful than you are today. A beautiful heart makes a beautiful woman. Not sure how I could love you more than I do today.

Love,

Daddy

I still have this note on my mirror. When I look at it, my heart is filled with joy and honor for my dad. He not only thinks about me, but he loves me unconditionally for who I am.

My dad reflects the heart of our heavenly Father so well. God thinks about us all of the time (Psalm 139:17-18). The love of God is so real and so strong. In His presence, I feel overwhelmed with joy. My heart is consumed with awe at the thought of Him wanting to be with me.

Zephaniah 3:17 says that “He will take great delight in you; . . . [he] will rejoice over you with singing.”

Who, me?

Yes.

In the midst of my being overwhelmed in the inexpressible and glorious joy of being His, God is rejoicing with singing at the simple thought of me.

Priceless Worth

The Lord made us with respect, honor, and awe. He is enthralled by our beauty and delights in calling us His.

This becomes harder and harder to believe the more that we accept what other people say and confuse someone else’s opinions with our true identity. In this world, from social media to movies, magazines to society, we hear that we are beautiful if—if we are this tall, this size, this skin tone. Only if we have this voice, this smile. As culture changes and shifts, standards and expectations of beauty change too. So many of us determine what we wear, how we talk, who we hang out with, based on society’s ever-changing definition of beauty. In doing this, we will never be content with who we are or who we’re pretending to be. As the world’s standards change, we become worn out and restless by constantly trying to prove our own value.

All the while, the King of kings has already determined our priceless worth before the world even existed. God says we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). God says we are valuable (Matthew 10:29-31). God says He made us beautiful exactly as we are. Still, even though we hear His words, we aren’t always quick to believe the truth fully because the world is telling us the exact opposite. If our focus is on the world, it doesn’t matter how many times we hear what’s true because we believe and follow whatever we are focused on. But the more time we spend with God, the more quickly and easily we begin to hear and acknowledge His voice.

God’s Workmanship

What if instead of believing the lies of the devil, we choose to receive what God has said? What if we believe the truth that never changes or shifts, the truth that assures us we are priceless? Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (ESV). God’s truth declares we are beautiful because God, the creator of beauty, made us. Our smiles can be genuine and our confidence steady because our souls know our true worth in God’s eyes.

When our souls grasp the precious truth that we are God’s wonderful workmanship, we can believe we are made with uniqueness and purpose. We can begin to have a steadfast confidence, even in the midst of the shifting standards of the world. When we see ourselves the way that God sees us, the burden of striving to be enough begins to fade. A joyfully different perspective will take its rightful place in our hearts. When we look in the mirror, the truth of who God says we are will lead us to remember that He is thinking about us and loves us unconditionally. The changing standards of culture cannot consume us when we choose to believe that we are what God says we are . . . fearfully and wonderfully made.