“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
If you create something (a picture or a paper airplane or a clay sculpture, or even a recipe), you have used your mind and your imagination as well as your hands, tools, and supplies. You will truly enjoy your creation, if it matters to you and if you do a good job. It may never turn out as well as you had hoped, but when you are done, your project shows others something about you, the creator. It reflects your style.
When God finished making the world, it was good (“God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). When we look at the world, we see God’s style, His creativity. We see colors and sounds and beauty. We see what He provides for us: food and water, rain and light. We experience a world of systems that work properly, such as the four seasons, always in the same order; day following night; or gravity. We see animals and plants that are so unusual and fantastic that a human being could never have imagined them. Our own bodies are amazing systems that no computer could ever equal.
Once Adam and Eve sinned, God’s creation could no longer be perfect. It was still good, but now it had a curse on it. You may have seen this in yourself: you get sick, or things go wrong in your body, or you would like to change a part of yourself that does not seem right. God will take care of all these problems one day. If you are His child, you will be part of a new heaven and a new earth, with a new body that works perfectly at all times. But in the meantime, you are still “fearfully and wonderfully made.” For that reason we can praise God, for “it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3).
God doesn’t make junk.
My response:
» How can I use my body to praise God?
» How can I use my mind to praise God?