Our bodies
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:13-14
Our bodies are simply amazing. Here are a few random facts: Every second our bodies produce 25 million new cells. The tongue is covered in about 8,000 taste buds, each containing up to 100 cells. The entire surface of our skin is replaced every month. If we live to 70, our heart will have enjoyed about 2.5 million beats. The human brain possesses about 100 billion neurons with roughly one quadrillion (that’s one million billion) synapses wiring these cells together. That means your brain is more powerful than any supercomputer!
I struggle to understand how anyone can think about the human body without bursting out in worship to our great God. That was exactly how King David responded in this glorious psalm.
I challenge you to spend time today specifically thanking God for your amazing body. We so often focus on the bits we don’t like or that don’t work; they clamour for our attention, and visits to the doctors absorb an increasing amount of our time and attention as we get older. But despite all of that, we all have miraculous bodies which should be a springboard for our worship.
Our society, and especially the advertising industry, focuses a lot of attention on perfect bodies. That places a terrible burden on us, leaving many people feeling that their bodies are far from miraculous. Indeed, it can leave sick and disabled people feeling that everything has gone horribly wrong. However, we need to protest that every single person, whatever their illness or disability, is a wonderful expression of God’s creative genius and a reason for us to praise him.
QUESTION
In what way are you going to praise God for your body today?
PRAYER
Creator God, I worship you for the incredible miracle of my body. Forgive me that I often forget to praise you for the way in which you have made me. Amen