I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139:14 NIV
You are precious. Is that your conviction? Are you aware of that and do you live accordingly? Most of the time there is something we don't like about ourselves and we are dissatisfied with ourselves and our environment. I catch myself comparing myself, striving to be something I am not. But God wants to show us how wonderfully we are made through the words of the Psalmist, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:14 NIV).
When I think of how precious we are in His eyes, the story of a little boy comes to my mind. The boy was building a sailboat. He took great care with the wood and the sails. With great joy, he treated the wood with varnish. He painted a pattern on the hull and waited for the right weather to try the boat out on the water. With beautiful weather and a small breeze, he went to the water and set it out. The wind rocked the boat on the water. Suddenly a breeze came up and carried the boat far out. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough to catch it, so he could only watch his boat sail farther and farther out until it was no longer visible. Sadly, he went home. When his mother saw him, she asked: "Didn't it work"? Crying, the boy said, "It worked too well!"
Six months later, the boy was strolling around town and saw his boat in the town's second-hand shop. With excitement, the boy walked in and said, "That is my boat. Here you see, this is where I glued it and there is the scratch I couldn't file away.”
“How nice,” said the owner, “but I bought it from someone and if you want it back you have to pay for it because I paid for it, too.” The boy went home, hanging his head, and decided to buy the boat back. And so the little boy saved everything he could earn on the side until he had enough money together.
Joyfully he went to the shop and bought his boat back. On his way home he stopped for a while and said, “You are twice my boat. First, you are my boat because I built you, and secondly, you are my boat because I bought you!”
If you think that you are not worth much, always remember how God thinks of you. First, He made you, He is your creator, you are His! Secondly, He bought you, He paid a price to redeem you. He loves you! You are sufficient! Thus you may come to Him and know you are loved and infinitely precious.
Dagmar Latuski, Women’s Ministries Director, Swiss-German Conference