The Term ‘fearfully and wonderfully’ Re-imagined.
Reading Time: Two minutes
The term ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ comes from the bible. It’s essentially Christian lingo for ‘hun you’re good enough, no need to be insecure’.
When I watch nature/creation, I’m always drawn to how beautiful it is and I know plenty of other people are the same. I can see the River Thames from my living room window and people come every day just to be by the water. Some sit by it, some run past it, some stretch in front of it, some drive up to it to do romancin’ - yes I see y’all… *lowers glasses* and I approve, it’s beautiful out here at night too. We all (or at least a big proportion of people I’d guess) are able to appreciate it, myself included. I sit there and just take it in. Don’t be fooled, the Thames is dirty. But as a whole, it’s quite mesmerising. Watching the water move, which unless you look close looks pretty blue, the birds flying around it, the riverboats that sail through, the reflections on the water as Canary Wharf lights it up at night. I enjoy the view and I see lots of others enjoying it too.
I was looking out of the window one day when I realised that I’ve never looked at it with an editing lens. I’ve never looked at the reflection of the sun on the water as it’s rising and thought ‘how could I make this better?’ or ‘this would be way prettier if we took a bit of light away here and added it there’. And then I thought about how differently I view human beauty - with a way more critical lens, like its something to be improved upon rather than just taking it in and enjoying it for what it is, like the river.
I look at myself at times and think about the improvements I could make.
Probably because as humans we’re good at making comparisons and then reaching an often arbitrary conclusion on which is better and which is worse. Social media helps us play this game on an internet-sized scale (it’s MAD when you think that there could be millions and millions of us all doing this) and 24/7 if we want to. I won’t launch into the problems with social media, that we’ve all heard so many times before because at the crux of it, look around peeps - we are social media. We are the ones who post things that drive others to compare and we are the ones who do the comparing.
If you’ve ever read the bible or grown up in a church setting you might have heard the verse from the book of Psalms, chapter 139 verse 14. It says:
‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.’
It was written by a guy called David and he was talking to God. I grew up very insecure and in a churchy setting so this verse was my go to. I always used it to help myself believe that I must be pretty enough - if David can say this to God about himself and its true then it can stand for me too because I was made by that same God. It must be a standard for all humanity. All made by God = all beautiful.
But maybe it doesn’t mean pretty. Everyone on the planet is fearfully and wonderfully made (because everyone was indeed made by God) but not everyone would call everyone else beautiful. Maybe the term ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ isn’t about looks but is simply knowing that the same artistic hand that made the reflection of the sun on the sea (which is such a nice sight to enjoy) also made you. And if you don’t question or try to edit that beauty, then maybe you don’t need to question or edit your own.
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