"Fearfully"... sure... but "wonderfully"?
"Dear God, we confess hat often we find your unrelenting presence tiresome. It is so hard to live seemingly caught between what it seems you want us to be and what we know we are. Help us to realize that our very pretensions of unworthiness are unworthy. Make us glad to be your people, gathered into your church, celebrating the victory that is ours..." (Stanley Hauerwas)I am, I trust, "fearfully and wonderfully" made... whatever that means. I suppose that sometimes it's much easier to relate to the "fearfully" part. Life is so tragically fragile and so incredibly dangerous. It's weight can be much to bear and I suppose that's really what "fearfully" means; the weight of my creation is heavy, it's multifaceted, it's deep. It's not to be taken for granted nor taken lightly. It's fearful. That's often the place I stand. I stand in that fear and it's hard to look beyond it. That is what I know that I am.
But then there's the other part. Am I really "wonderfully made"? Am I really this great and wonderful and marvelous creation? 'Cause I just don't see it. But there I go again... with my "pretensions of unworthiness," assuming that I am something less than what you say I am.
Truly, Lord, make me glad to be yours. Make me glad to embrace my wonderfulness, the beauty of who I am. May the fearfulness of my creation ever be qualified by the wonderfulness of it. I am created in your image. May I never be an insult. May I celebrate the victory that is mine in you. Amen.
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