For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. - Psalm 139:13-14
Fearfully and wonderfully made... I have known this Scripture for years and this is the first time I stopped to ponder what it meant to be fearfully made. Picking the words apart in a very fundamental way - we're talking about being made full of fear and wonder. After doing some digging in trusted commentaries as I studied this, I've come to the conclusion that David is speaking to the awe and reverence towards the Lord we were created with. Though some of us walk according to that reverence, and others live suppressing it, it is there within us. In this case, it is what caused David to praise.
But back to how this speaks to our identity, and who God is...
Beyond this passage, there are many places in Scripture that speak to God's heart and intentions in creating us. Jeremiah 1:5 is very similar to Psalm 139:13. Paul speaks to the fact that we've been uniquely gifted and called according to God's purposes in Romans (Romans 12), his letters to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12) and his letters to Timothy (1 Tim. 4).
Ephesians 2:10 tells us:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Genesis 1 shows us that God was intentional in creating man:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Luke 12:7 articulates how intimately God knows us and the details he created us with:
Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Not to mention that the fact that God is our Creator is what makes the fact that we were fearfully and wonderfully mean anything at all. Think about it this way... what's the difference between the value of my painting and Vincent Van Gogh's painting? A LOT. The creator behind the work of art matters. Who greater to be made by than God Himself?
And I share all of that to say that knowing that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God, tells me three really important, humbling things:
I am intimately known by my Creator (Psalm 139 | Luke 12)
God was intentional in creating me (Genesis 1)
My life is divinely purposed (Ephesians 2 | Romans 12)
We were created for connection. To be so intimately known is a source of joy I cannot put into words - and that joy is felt just in knowing that there are people that know me intimately. There is never ending joy that comes from knowing my Creator knows me that intimately!
It is an unbelievably comforting and humbling thing to know the One who crafted the skies knows me so intimately that He knows the number of hairs on my head; that He uniquely gifted and called me, and divinely purposed my life within the expanse of His plan.
And the question I can't help but ask myself in knowing of all these things about who I am and who my Creator is, is this:
What would life look like if I embraced that part of my identity wholeheartedly? What if I lived my life, intentionally carrying in my heart that I am intimately known by the same God that created all that is, and that my life is divinely purposed?
The deeper I go into understanding my identity in relation to who God is, the more humbled and in awe I am.
~ Alyssa
P.s. There was no rhyme or reason for the order of the identity statements beyond covering that we are redeemed first, which just points back to how in the details God is. I say that because the next identity statement we're covering is - I am a Child of God, He is the Father. Not only are we intimately known, we are deeply loved.