We are all carefully put together: a unique product of the heart and will of God

MY mum was a great knitter and multi-tasker. She could read a book watch television, hold a conversation and knit all at the same time. Her jumpers were amazing: intricate patterns and pictures – nothing was beyond her. And all done at speed. Every year she would make a jumper with a cartoon character knitted into it for me to wear at a summer children’s club I ran. One year she remembered that the club started in 24 hours and she hadn’t even cast on. By noon the next day the annual child-friendly knit was finished.

So, when I read the psalmist writing of God “knitting” us together in the womb, it resonates strongly with me. Like my mum’s creativity there is nothing shoddy or hint of the assembly line in his creative work. We are all carefully put together: a unique product of the heart and will of God. We are unique not simply because of our individual fingerprints. Society may encourage us to dress the same way and organisations try to reduce us to a reference number. But to our creator we are all distinct and special. Jesus spoke of a Heavenly Father who noticed sparrows who fell to the ground. If that is true, he continued, will not this same God extend to us his care and protection?

Often we feel we don’t matter. Thankfully God’s love is not determined by our feelings or even our response to him. As I was told many years ago “God loves us because he loves us”. The same psalmist who tells of how God knits us together also writes that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. Caught up in the rush of daily life we can so quickly forget this. Taking time out to consider the intricacy of our lives can bring the wonder back.

Mum had to lay down her knitting needles when her arthritis made continuing too difficult. But my wardrobe still holds the evidence of her unique talent. Meanwhile, God, arthritis free, continues to create, recreate, renew and restore. Why? For no other reason than that he loves us.

>