3rd May, 2011

Outreach Media's May, 2011, poster:

Pregnancy and childbirth has been one of the most astounding experiences of my life. However, as I followed the weekly updates of what was happening within my womb I became strangely aware that I wasn't really in control. I didn't know how to put a lung or a kidney together, or when to start making the fingernails. Though my body was doing the work there was someone else masterminding the whole process - God.

In Psalm 139, King David says to God "You knit me together in my mother's womb." Knitting is not a task that can be done at a distance, via remote or pre-programming, it is a careful and up-close undertaking. How spectacular that each one of us has been knit together by God! We can actually say, "I have been handmade by God."

What does it mean to you that you have been handmade by God? Psalm 139 says it means you are wonderfully made. You aren't a mistake. Even if your parents didn't "mean" to have you, even if you have a disability, so-called poor genetics or ill health, even if you don't look the way society says you should, or have an IQ people are impressed by, nothing about you is a mistake. God has carefully and thoughtfully made you exactly the way you are.

Being intentionally created artworks of God also means we have a purpose. God crafted you to live life experiencing His love and loving Him in return. Do you live your life according to this purpose He has made you for?

No one can answer a whole-hearted "yes" to this question. But there is still hope. Incredibly, God sent his one and only son into the world, knit together in human flesh in the womb of Mary. He did this to breach our estranged relationship with Him. Jesus is God become human. In Jesus we can be forgiven for disregarding God's purpose for our lives. And even more wonderfully, with Jesus we can begin to live our lives the way they were crafted to be - in a loving relationship with the Almighty Knitter!

For more information or to see how your church can become involved in displaying the posters, visit Outreach Media's at www.outreachmedia.org.au.