My daughter, Emmy, is becoming quite the little artist. She draws a mean Larry Boy and her rendering of Olaf is pretty good, too. She doesn’t draw them from memory but will look at a book or a picture of the character as a guide. The drawings aren’t perfect, of course, but for a five year old they are her best effort and we praise them as if they are a masterpiece. She delights in this and it encourages her to draw even more. Like any parent, I love seeing her do well in something that she enjoys.
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| “Olaf,” by Emmy |
That’s because she is God’s masterpiece. We all are. Each of us has been made in His image and this gives us intrinsic worth. Even the imperfect versions of us are priceless.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)
I’ve thought about this much in the context of my damaged, broken down body. Did God make a mistake when He created me, somehow making me more susceptible to developing leukemia? When He knit me together in my mother’s womb, did He miss a step in the blueprint? Since He is capable of only good things, then the logical answer is no. Any imperfection is a product of living in a fallen world, not God’s oversight or willful error.
Over the last several months, I have become even more amazed at the wonder of the human body. I have experienced my body healing itself, by God’s design and his use of modern medicine, from the various ailments associated with leukemia and the stem cell transplant. The mere idea that I can have a new immune system by introducing another person’s stem cells into my body borders on the absurd, but yet through His marvelous design this has happened. To paraphrase Ravi Zacharias, saying that our bodies arose from chance rather than intelligent design is like saying that a dictionary was created from an explosion at a printing press.
I start each morning’s prayer by praising God, and what most often comes to mind is Psalm 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” I am not a mistake. Neither are you. Despite having developed leukemia from a mutation to my DNA, I am still wonderfully made in His image. We are so much more than our DNA. We are more than these temporary bodies. We are souls meant to spend eternity with a loving God.
Christi and I often ask Emmy why we love her:
“No, daddy.”
“Is it because you’re pretty?”
Sometimes she rolls her eyes a little, but she knows the answer. She may not really understand it fully yet, but one day she will. We love her because of who she is. We love her because of her intrinsic worth as our child. She and her sister are our prized possessions. And so is each of us to our Father, in spite of any disease, deformity, character flaw, or other imperfection. We are made perfectly by Him and then we are made holy by his Son. We are his Masterpiece.
He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession. (James 1:18 NLT)