He Knows My Name

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14

How Many Children?

Dear God,
How many children do you have?
A million? Billion? Trillion?
He says, “Even more than that!
I have a multitude no one can number—
Ah! And I hold them all in my hand!
Not one is forgotten—I know all about them,
And I supply every need that they have.”
Dear Father in Heaven, How rich you must be,
Providing for such a large, growing family!
He says, “My riches are unending—
Beyond comprehending;
Compounding exponentially.”
Oh Father God, How wise you must be!
To create such a wide variety
Of people with all different personalities.
Is there no end to your creativity?
He says, “Oh no! I only do originals—
Each one priceless, unique;
And each one expressing a unique part of Me.”

The first phrase of the song “He Knows My Name” says, “I have a maker,” which reminds me of the mind-boggling fact that each one of us is formed by the hand of God. That means we can be assured that we have value and are precious simply and for no other reason than the fact that we are created in His image. Isn’t that amazing? We are small, in-process versions of our big creator God. Flowers bloom, waterfalls cascade, cheetahs run fast, and birds fly high; but none of them is made in God’s image—only we are. And not only did He make us, but He also made us with a purpose: to reflect who He is and give Him glory with our lives.

I’ll never forget watching the birth of each of my four children. How can it be that these little eternal beings, made in God’s image, who no one but God had ever met before, just popped out and showed up on planet Earth? To this day I still can’t quite comprehend it.

I remember in particular the birth of my third child, April. The minute she saw daylight, she looked around as if to say, “What’s going on around here? Who are you guys, and what are you talking about?”

Like the rest of us, she will live her God-ordained years on Earth and hopefully fulfill all the works that God has predestined for her (see Eph. 2:10). Then April will go on to live forever in worlds unknown to carry out the mystery of God’s redemptive cosmic plan. Try to get your brain around that one! Oh, and beyond that, try to fathom the It’s a Wonderful Life phenomenon: The lives of everyone April meets and interacts with during her lifetime will be altered and influenced in some way because she showed up on planet Earth that beautiful Spring day in 1998.

Another mind-boggling fact about our creator God is that He makes each one of us different. That’s right! The God we worship is so over-the-top creative that He delights in making each of us unique. There are somewhere around 6 billion of His creations on Earth right now, which doesn’t even count all the millions of people who have gone before us—and those who are yet to come. Why does He make each one of us different and unique? Well, it’s not only because He is creative; but it’s also because He is the God of the one lost lamb, the God who took time to visit with social and religious outcasts, the God who had compassion on and healed the blind man. He is the God of the individual!

We’re not just a huge mass of human beings; instead, we are each unique and we have been created to be unique expressions of who He is. In fact, I believe that if we took the time to get to know this God in an intimate way instead of just imitating one another, we would become even more unique, more interesting, more fun, more peaceful and more joyful; and we would fulfill our true potential, because He is an infinite God with limitless possibilities to express His wonderful, marvelous, fascinating nature.

All this to say, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully and wonderfully because we are made in the same image as the most awesome being in the universe—God Himself!