Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

 

Good morning.  It’s Thursday again.

 

About a week and a half ago, we had guests at our place and I was helping the wife prepare dinner in the kitchen.  We had something baking in the oven for the meal, and it was time to take it out of the oven.  As I reached in to take out the dish, the back of my hand brushed against the hot edge of the oven.  The area was about an inch and a half long by about half of an inch wide.  It didn’t look too bad at the time…just red.  I put some water on it and went ahead with the prep for the dinner.

 Later on, the red place started to look a little more sinister, and eventually a rather elongated scab formed on the burn.  I kept the area clean, bandaged it from time to time, and although I’ll spare you from having to see photos of it or showing it to you now, live, will tell you that it has just about healed.

 OK, you say.  What in the world does this have to do with a Thursday Thought?  Just this.  I’ve been watching that area on the back of my left hand with interest over the past days as a protective layer was formed over it, new tissue grew, skin grew over the wound, and healing is nearing completion.  I’m sure there will be a scar of some kind there, but just observing my body healing that wound has been an almost spiritual experience.

 I’ve never consciously told my body what to do in order to heal that area.  I have no clue what is actually going on on a molecular or cellular level in that place on my hand.  I’ve not had any conscious part in the actual healing process…I only have tried to keep it clean and covered it when I felt I needed to do so.

 Blood vessels, nerves, skin, underlying tissue…all is being created, rebuilt, and retro-fitted as I watch.  Dead tissue is being carried away and disposed of.  Germs and viruses trying to enter the breach are being killed off.  The protective covering gets smaller by the day, and now is covering only the deepest portion of the burn area.  That place on my hand is a veritable repair shop with tools being used there that are beyond anything I know or understand.  There is an itching sensation in the area, which I know is a symptom of the healing process.  In a short time, my hand will be “good as new,” and the only thing I will notice there is a small scar where the outer skin has knit itself together.

 When the Bible says that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and that we were “knit together in our mother’s womb,” and when I look at what’s going on on and inside of the back of my hand, I begin to understand that there is something special and wondrous about this house of clay that has been prepared for me.  That there is something or someone beyond this life and beyond this existence that has inserted a wisdom into the universe from another place…because there is nothing in this sphere of existence that can conceive of, create, and sustain the wonder that I am seeing on that place on the back of my hand.

 It’s no wonder that humanity itself is called to humility…to walk humbly.  What we don’t know and what we can’t do far, far exceeds what we do know and can do as human beings.  And when we acknowledge that fact…when we understand our dependence…when we realize that we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made,” we will have taken a giant step toward being the humans that the Creator has always intended for us to be.

 Blessings.