Giving Thanks for His Handiwork

When we sit down with family and friends and join hands to give thanks for the blessings in our lives, our gratitude is often fueled by the irreplaceable things and people in our lives that we don’t always thank the Lord for on a daily basis.

We don’t always have the kindest or gentlest things to say to those we love. At times we find ourselves more frustrated with those closest to us than thankful for them. This is especially true for the person we spend the most time with—ourselves.

The Bible is clear. The Lord put His best work into creating humanity, crafting our body, our personality, our very nature and way of thinking. With great intentionality, He reinforced the truth of the Scripture over human life.

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. (Psalm 139:13–16)

When the Word says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, it is not an exaggeration. Scientists have estimated that about 10,000 human cells can fit on the head of a pin. The human brain alone is so complex that a computer has not been built that can match the processing power and efficiency of this 3-lb organ in your head.

Every day, your heart beats about 100,000 times, sending 2,000 gallons of blood surging through your body. You would need to leave a faucet running all the way for 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the human heart in an average lifetime. Although it’s no bigger than your fist, your heart has the mighty job of keeping blood flowing through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels that feed your organs and tissues.

The master craftsman who redeems, restores, and makes all things new, declares His excellent workmanship not just internally in our emotions and will, and not just externally in creation, but in our physical bodies. We’re bombarded with images and ideas of what some say it means to be attractive, fit, and successful. With all the things that a person may wish to change about their body, it can be a challenge to remember that we were intentionally made in the image of God.

Everyone might say there are legitimate things that need to be improved or things that could be improved or lost, but waiting until something changes before we value the gift the Lord took time to make can lead us to overlook the beauty we already possess.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Regardless of what we or others think about the human body, we can take an objective look and marvel at our Creator’s handiwork and thank Him. We can thank Him for His unique stamp in every one of our individual fingerprints or the computational ability of our minds that are able to send directions to our limbs and organs at speeds of 328 feet per second without us consciously directing them to function.

And these are not even our resurrected bodies. This is only the beginning.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)