Working with Your Hands

One pastime from which I derive much pleasure is making things with my hands.  To take a piece of yarn and make an afghan is very satisfying.  It is amazing that a flat piece of fabric becomes a dress, or colored thread makes a beautiful picture.  After I finish making something, I take great pride in it; it is something I carefully, lovingly made with my own hands.  Perhaps you, too, know the satisfying feeling that comes from creating something beautiful.

God must feel that way about making all of us.  What a beautiful thought!  God, a master craftsman (Jesus was, after all, a carpenter) has knit me, has made me.  From bits of nothing, He created something, a human being; He created me; He created you.

“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, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:15, 16).  Just as I can look at a skein of yarn and “see” the finished afghan, so God could see me before my body was formed.  Just as I know every stitch that went into an afghan or an article of clothing, God knows everything about me and has known it since before I was born.  And notice, unlike my sometimes-feeble attempts at craftsmanship, the Psalmist’s words say that I was “skillfully wrought.”  Made sloppily?  No.  Made imperfectly?  No.  Made “skillfully.”  Like me, is God proud of his craftsmanship?  I think so.  God made me and made you “skillfully,” so we should be pleased and proud of ourselves; each of us is special and each of us is made exactly the way God wanted us to be. 

How often we complain about ourselves:  I wish I looked like this person, or had his talents or her wisdom.  When we question the way we look, the way we think, or the talents we have, we are questioning God.  When we criticize ourselves, we are sinning against God, our creator.  We are saying that His handiwork is not good.  Does that mean I’m perfect?  Of course not.  It means I am made exactly the way God intended me to be.

Knowing I have been made exactly the way God wanted me fills me with love and humility.  It gives me confidence that I would otherwise lack.  It also gives me a sense of great responsibility.  God gave me a certain personality and certain gifts for a reason.  As a child of His, it is my responsibility to recognize and appreciate the abilities He has created in me; it is my responsibility to dedicate my gifts to God and to use these God-given gifts to glorify my maker.

Oh God, creator of the universe, forgive me when I criticize your handiwork.  Help me to have confidence in who I am, not out of boastfulness, but because I know you lovingly made me as you wanted me and you are pleased with your work.

Psalm 139:13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."