Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Psalms 139:13-14

I admit, I have had this verse on my heart for some time now, but this weekend when my big boys brought home the same verse from their Sunday school class, it really pressed on my heart. I made sure to express to the boys just how true and specific this verse is to us, especially as of late. Last night Josh and I announced to the 4 boys (one of whom is too little to understand and one who was drifting in and out sleep from being up too early) that we are expecting another baby in March! The the happy booming, noisy response that bounced off the walls (literally!) was quite contagious and exciting for all of us.

I think of my friend Whitney who has an amazing talent and hobby of knitting. A talent I admire, but will never acquire-I simply lack the patience and ability to sit still for longer than ten minutes, much to the dismay of my husband when we "sit down" to watch a movie. Most likely I am busy folding laundry or moving about the room! Back on course: over a year ago when she learned she and her husband were expecting their first baby, Whitney began to knit a project. If I remember correctly the project was a teddy-bear-brown, soft four button sweater. Although she began knitting with the end result in mind, Whitney did not close her eyes, let her hands do the work and say to herself "Alright, if I calculate this correctly it should take about 40 weeks. So in nine months I'll open my eyes we will see how this turns out." Quite the opposite, actually. Following a pattern, careful fingers, long hours, lots of love and much hard work went into preparing and knitting for her expected little one. I must say I have seen the masterpiece recently and she turned out perfectly (the sweater was pretty cute, too!).

I could only imagine if it would have been done with eyes closed!

As we wait on our 5th baby, I love this reminder that we too are "knit together". The Good Lord doesn't simply type in some sort of DNA code, toss it all together, close His eyes wait nine long months (ten actually) and see what comes out. In fact, He is hard at work every day in the same way following His own pattern, using careful fingers, long hours, and lots of love on His most wonderful creation: us. I find myself wondering "Today is He hard at work forming toenails on our baby, or is the perfect eye color swatch been completed upstairs yet?" Does God sit back and admire His work from time to time? Does he start each day asking Himself "What shall I work on today-the cardiovascular system or the nervous system?" We are all so fearfully and wonderfully made, and what He has made is perfection. You'd better believe I will be looking for the fingerprints of God when I hold this baby for the first time. Do you ever look for them on yourself?