“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord…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: 1-4;13-14

I was scheduled to lead devos this week (and, despite having been in Toastmasters for nearly a year, I *still* dread leading devos!), so I shared about seeing the Bodies exhibit and this passage in Psalms, which I happened to read last week. I found those verses encouraging, especially knowing that God knows our thoughts and our beings so well–even better than ourselves. When I have thoughts that seem strange and disturbing to me, even to the point of wondering if I could speak them aloud, I am reassured that God hears, doesn’t judge me, and knows that it’s all a part of who I am.

“You may be a little wacko, but I knew that before you were born, and I don’t love you any less,” I imagine God saying.

The last time I led devos, I read some verses from Job 38 and 39, where God responds to Job’s demands for God to tell him why he is enduring all the suffering. God doesn’t answer Job’s questions, but instead spouts questions about his power as Creator of the universe (not to be confused with He-Man, Master of the universe). God says, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Who marked off its dimensions? Who shut up the sea behind doors…Have you ever given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place…Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail…Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons…Who let the wild donkey go free? Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?”

And He goes on for two chapters in a similar fashion, bringing up imagery of nature’s beauty and the hidden life of wild animals that man rarely sees. I can see Job feeling smaller and smaller as God continues. But after reading these chapters, and then after reading the psalms mentioned above, how could we NOT be in awe of God who created our human body parts that miraculously work together and run on their own, or who orchestrated the oceans, stars, trees, mountains, and all of nature to survive cohesively? Sometimes we strive so hard to understand God, but if He really is this amazing being who created US, doesn’t it make sense that we don’t completely understand Him?