March 22, 2024

Psalm 8.3, 4  (NIV)

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

God’s goodness extends far beyond our understanding.*

The work of his fingers! God put the universe in place with the work of his fingers - not even a wave of his hand or the crossing of his arms and blinking of his eyes, I Dream of Jeannie style. If he created the universe with a wiggle of his fingers, did he have to move at all to make me? And what are we that he is mindful of us (that his mind is full of us)? Does every crafter care so much for every tiny little item he produces? “Oh, yeah.  I made 7,205 of that model but I remember something special about each one and I think about it every day.” Probably not.

So what makes us so special? God does. He made us special. He created us in his image. David goes on in verse 4 to say, “You made him [man] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” He doesn’t tell us why. The only thing we know is that in Genesis 1.27, God says, “Let’s make man in our image,” and that was that.

 

In Romans 9.20, Paul raises the rhetorical question, “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” He says that the potter has the right to make a lump of clay into something for noble purposes or common use. He is making the point that “you and I are simply jars of clay – fragile and unspectacular – but inside these humble vessels, God stores the treasure of his presence.”*

It’s not what’s on the outside that makes us special – it’s who we carry around inside us.

No other . . . creation of God rejects him . . . and denies his  . . . existence. . . . Yet God continues to love us passionately and to remain deeply involved in our lives.*