Handcrafted by Jehovah Elohim

“Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:12-14

I love items crafted by hand. Whether window shopping for objets d'art at a craft fair or art gallery, a jewelry or quilt show or at outdoor markets overseas or stores selling indigenous art, individual creativity amazes me. Their artistry and creativity? Truly gifts from God. Taking nondescript materials, artisans create items of distinction.  

Twice I attended the King Tut exhibition. Both times the amazing artistry of granite-hard stone smoothed into the Pharaohs’ statues and the finely detailed jewelry left me awed. How did ancient jewelers shape tiny semi-precious stone beads and drill holes for stringing without modern equipment? And the patience required? Amazing.

Most often I don’t know the creator whose artistic soul fashioned the objet d'art delighting my eyes and artistic sense. But I do know the Creator of my soul. Not only did God weave me together in my mother’s womb, he handcrafts the darkness of my circumstances into an objet d'art revealing the beauty of His miraculous workmanship in my heart.

At the same time the stresses and strains of single parenting to survive squeeze every bit of creativity out of me, I remain the object of God’s love. I want my faith to be more than a decorative object created for outward show. Will my faith reveal God’s creativity to shape the unformed, raw materials of the dark circumstances of my life into his work of heart art? 

Only when I admire and praise the beauty of God’s handiwork in my life in the midst of heartache and hardship.

Jehovah Elohim, my Creator, You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. (Nehemiah 9:6, NIV) I praise you for giving me life and turning my darkness into light and my chaos into beauty. You are, my life, the very life I breathe.