Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

This morning I read Psalm 139.  Look at verses 14 and 15:

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth...

Ashes to ashes.  Dust to dust.  Those words are often spoken at the graveside of those who have died as a reminder that we were created by God from the dust and to dust we shall return.  I wonder if the psalmist was remembering the creation narrative when he wrote these words about being woven in the depths of the earth.

It's an interesting image of God as weaver.  I don't know much about weaving - that's one craft I've never explored - but I know that the process is laborious and the product can be intricate and beautiful.  The weaver designs the fabric by the color of the yarn that is used to warp the loom and to create the weft (see me throwing out terms that I barely understand?  The warp are threads running perpendicular the weaver and the weft is the thread that is woven through them.  I think).  Woven fabric is fearfully (with awe and reverence) and wonderfully made.  I am certainly in awe when I see it.

And does the passage say anything to you about how long God has known who we are? If the psalmist traces our origins back to the creation narrative, when man and woman were created from the dust, then could it be that God does, too?  Has God known each of us from the beginning?  Or at least, has each of us been a thought - a creative spark - in the creator for a very very long time?

You are a beloved child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made by your creator?  Do you need to hear that today?  Is there someone else close to you - or who you have never met before - who need to hear that today?  And have you thought about looking at the person with whom you are angry and seeing that person as a beloved child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made?  Would it change how you respond to that person?