Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Your Story
Talk about a time when you realized that God loves every piece of you. This may be a time when you doubted yourself and didn’t feel worthy, and then you realized that God formed you, loves you, and knows you inside and out.
Or talk about how you know your children inside and out—you know their hearts, the random freckle on their feet, how they will react to things, etc.
My Story and the Bible Story
As a teenager, I didn’t always feel pretty or worthwhile. There were many times when I doubted myself, particularly as a middle schooler. I had braces and I had to get glasses in middle school, and it was an awkward time. So I will never forget when I first learned these verses. We first talked about being “fearfully and wonderfully made” in my youth girls Bible study. This verse was the verse we clung to when we had a hard time accepting ourselves. I love this verse because it reminds me that God made me and that God loves the way that God made me.
Read Psalm 139:1-6 and verses 13-18. You can read it from whatever version you like, but I’ve chosen to quote The Message: “God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!”
“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day. Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them—any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!”
If you ever doubt yourself or think you aren’t pretty/handsome enough or think you aren’t cool enough, remember that the God of the Universe created you. The God of the Universe shaped you inside and out, making you bit by bit as you grew. And that God who made you thinks that you are a marvelous creation. God thinks you are amazing! And not only did God make you, but God knows everything about you. God knows what you are thinking, sees you at every moment, and knows what you’re going to say even before you say it. Sometimes what we say isn’t very nice. And God knows when we say that, too. But no matter what you say or what you do, God knows exactly who you are and God loves you. God created you to be who you are. Think about that for a minute: who you are is who God created you to be. So when you don’t feel good enough or smart enough or cool enough, remember that God created you to be you. And be who you are, because that’s who God made you to be. God didn’t make you to be someone else—God made you to be you and loves you for who you are.
Discussion
• If you didn’t in the beginning, talk about all the different ways you know your children and how you’ve watched them grow. Then talk about how much more God knows us.
• Ask your children how it feels knowing that God knows everything about them. Talk about how that might seem scary but how comforting it is to know that God knows everything, the good and the bad, and still loves us.
• Talk about ways to show others that God made them to be who they are and that God loves them.
Prayer
Thank God that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Praise God for the amazing things that God does. Ask for help in remembering that God created us to be who we are.
Rev. Jessica Asbell is the Minister to Children and Families at First Baptist Roswell, where she has been serving since 2012. She has written the children’s curriculum for Smyth & Helwys’s Annual Bible Study for the books of Daniel; Ezekiel; Luke; Jonah; 1 Corinthians; 1, 2, 3 John and Jude; Colossians; The Story of Israel’s Ancestors: Living toward a Promise; and Where Faith & Family Meet: A Book of Weekly Devotions. She has also written for CBF’s Spark and Form and for Affect in CBF’s fellowship! magazine. Married to Jonathan Oravec, Jessica reads every chance she gets.
