When I
was a child, someone close to me thought they could motivate me to do better by
frequently asking me, “Why are you so stupid?” I didn’t know how much this had
affected me until I was a teenager and heard someone behind me say, “Stupid!”
At the word, I quickly turned around, thinking he was talking to me.
Knowing
Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord helped me to realize that because God created
me in His image (Gen. 1:27), I’m not stupid but am “fearfully and wonderfully
made” (Ps. 139:14). God declares that all He has made is “very good” (Gen.
1:31), and the Psalms remind us that we are “skillfully wrought” (Ps. 139:15).
The
psalmist David describes how God knows each one of us intimately: “O Lord, You
have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You
understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and
are acquainted with all my ways” (vv.1-3).
Not only are we wonderfully made, but because of Christ’s death on the cross, we can also be wonderfully restored to a right relationship with God. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation . . . . All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17-18 NIV).
