Misty Fitch | Fearfully Made

Being new to homeschooling, I’m learning a lot as I go. With each new day, I’m learning that I think Bible is my favorite subject to teach her. There are just so many fun ways to make the bible relevant, and there is just so much to learn. We end up spending more time in this class than any other!

Part of Bible class is learning a new verse each week. Our first theme is self-image and identity in Christ. Although we are finishing our 2nd week of school, she has memorized 3 verses already! I don’t want her to memorize scripture just for the sake of saying she’s memorized it. I want her to retain it, and that’s not going to happen if she doesn’t know what it means.

Next week, she will learn the final verse in the current theme, but we spent a great deal of time today focusing on what these verses mean to us.

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

That sounds great, but how can I make it make sense to an 8 year old?

We were in the car when it hit me. First, I remembered some things I wrote in my short study The Real You, so we read Day 4 and 5 of it before we got started.

Then, I thought about how she always wants to create with fondant when I’m making a cake. I usually give her a few small pieces, and she works beside me making her own thing.

So I got creative.

Verse 13 mentions knitting, but I don’t know a lot about knitting. I do know about fondant, though. I know that with anything dealing with cake decorating, it takes a lot of thought, time and patience to create the vision in my head.

I gave her 30 minutes to create whatever she wanted. Before she could get started, she had to decide what she was going to make (cat) and what colors she was going to use. As she talked about it, she also kept referring to the cat as “she,” so we also talked about how God decided that about us before he started making us, too.

We were out of one of the colors, so we had to make it. That part got a little messy, but it was fun, and it was necessary in order to have the right color. If we didn’t do this, she would have had to change the vision in her head, which would have ended with an imperfect final product.

I left her alone completely and told her I would help only with getting something out she needed or showing her where to find something we may have forgotten to get out. This was her project.

At one point she called me in because she didn’t know how to stick pieces together. She showed me what she had so far and even explained what everything was. I have to admit, I questioned if this was going to work out because I didn’t see any of her vision. She was excited, though, because it was coming out exactly how she wanted it to. When I left, God reminded me of how I never want anyone to see my cakes mid-process because they are usually a big mess and look nothing like what they’re supposed to. It’s not until everything is complete that it’s perfect. We then talked about how the word “perfect” in the bible means “complete.”

The 30 minutes were quickly over, but she was not finished, so I told her to keep working. Otherwise the lesson would not have the same effect.

After a while she excitedly called for me to come see her finished product. She’s the only one who could determine it was finished, which is why I couldn’t put a time limit on it. Before I got there, I was preparing myself and remembering that she is the only one who knows what it looked like in her head, and if she, the artist, says it’s perfect, then who am I to say it’s not? I mean, look at Picasso.

I was thrilled to see her final product because I FINALLY could see her vision. It was a cat, and it was perfect! (See picture below). She named the cat Snowflake, and she says it’s exactly what she was planning.

The Lesson

When she first read verse 15 this week, she asked me about “the secret place” and what that means as well as “the depths of the earth,” and I wasn’t 100% certain how to answer. I’ve always understood what this scripture is saying, and I haven’t broken it apart the way she did. So I’ve never considered this question.

After she finished this activity and we talked about how it relates to this scripture, I had a revelation, if you will. I haven’t studied this to know for certain, but I’m thinking these verses aren’t chronological. We talked about how her work area was kind of like a mother’s womb. That’s where all the hands-on work was done (vs. 13).

But then I asked a question that stumped her.

“Did you really start creating Snowflake in there?”

She looked confused and said, “Yes.”

I asked again, “Did you really start creating her in there?”

She paused for a minute, “Well, I started in my head in the car.”

YES!!!

Yes, sweet baby girl! She got it! The secret place in vs. 15 is before the mother’s womb. It’s God’s planning. He planned everything out before he started knitting us together in our mother’s womb.

And we all are created perfectly, exactly how we were supposed to be created, and there is no one in our world who can question it. So any time you hear someone putting you down whether it’s your physical features or your gifts and talents, don’t let it affect your thoughts about yourself. Remember who you are and who God created you to be, and you fight those lies with this scripture that says you were perfectly made, and only the artist can determine what is perfect and what is not.

The coolest thing is that the artist is the creator of all of the Heavens and Earth and every good and perfect thing!