Psalm 139:14 – “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful.”
I recently encountered a precious four-year old in a gift shop in North Carolina. We were standing in line, and she was admiring her shoes.
“I got new shoes,” she said to no one in particular.
“I like them,” I whispered.
Her big brown eyes looked up at me with a sheepish grin as she pondered her next statement. I could tell she was thinking intently; about which I could not imagine.
“God made me really beautiful. He did you too!”
“Yes, He did make you beautiful,” I answered with a smile, “And me too. Thank you.”
The familiar verse came quickly to mind from Psalm 139, remembering just recently complaining to the mirror at home about my own inadequacies. I no longer looked or felt 19 and somehow I thought I had been robbed. Why did we have to change as we grew older? Oh, to fit into my 19-year-old clothes again – pre-children body. I wondered if butterflies questioned their beauty or how they measured up. Did the Tiger Swallowtail wish to be more like the Virginia Lady? Did she long for orange speckles instead of yellow and black stripes?
Just last night my son Will and I took a long walk to a beautiful pond behind my house. David Thoreau’s Walden couldn’t compare to the natural, private setting of this dwelling. I noticed a tree that has probably been around 100 years, with thick twisted branches and a large rounded trunk. Its roots ran deep, obvious to all that it had probably weathered. As I pressed my hand against the bark, Will asked, “Trees are so much prettier when they’ve been around a long time, aren’t they?’
Storms, seasons, snowy days, drought, flood – all combined give the tree its magnificent splendor.
Aren’t we the same? Shouldn’t we all state with the confidence of that brown-eyed four-year old, “God made me really beautiful” each and every day?
We are a combined total of our experiences, challenges, joys, sorrows, and laughter. We are created uniquely and individually – like no other.
Celebrate who you are and the Artist who carefully constructed you. Like the tree, it is the strength of our roots that give us our splendor.
