I'm Thankful I Am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Each day until Thanksgiving, Everyday Truth is looking at a different reason to be thankful in a family devotional. Use these devotionals with your kids to help keep your family focused on giving thanks. If you missed the introductory post, check it out here for directions on creating a "Thanksgiving wall." When you're done wiht the devotional head on over to the Everyday Truth Facebook page and join in the discussion of why we're thankful for our families.

Have you ever thought about how your body works? Hold up your hand and look at it. Bend your fingers, then straighten them out again. Make your hand into a fist. Pick something up.

For our hands to work properly, every bone, muscle, ligament and joint has to work together. There are 27 bones in each hand. That's a lot of bones. Our whole body only contains 206 bones, which means about one-quarter of our bones are in our hands.

Do you ever think about making those bones move when you want to do something? When you picked something up, did you have to tell your hand what to do? You didn't, did you? You just thought about picking something up and your hand did it. All those bones, muscles, ligaments and joints worked together to do the task without you having to think about each one. Isn't that amazing?

We don't usually notice how well our bodies work until they don't work. We don't think about breathing until we have a cold, and it's hard to breathe. We don't think about walking unless we break our foot, and it's difficult to walk. We don't think about seeing until we get something in our eye, and we can't see.

God made our bodies to work without us having to take time or energy to make them work. Psalm 139:14 says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." David (the guy who wrote this Psalm) thanked God for making him. He realized that his body was an incredible thing. He says he is "fearfully and wonderfully made." And, you know what? You are, too.

God made you. He made your body so it is able to do all the things you need it to do. Even if your body has limitations, God gave you the tools to compensate for the limits. Did you know blind people usually can hear really well and smell really well? Those two senses help make up for the loss of sight. People who can't walk, usually have very strong arms so they can manuever a wheelchair or crutches. God created our bodies so they can make up in one area what they lack in another.

In Ephesians 2:10, Paul tells us that we are God's "masterpiece." That means we are the best thing He could ever make. Take a few minutes today and thank God for making you His masterpiece. Add the things you're thankful your body can do to your Thanksgiving wall. Pray and thank God that you are "fearfully and wonderfully made."