By Design

Psalm 139:13-18 (NLT)
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 marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

Hopelessness has been building for decades, but the Covid-19 lockdowns brought it to a fevered pitch. Without the distractions and diversions of everyday life, people were faced with the emptiness of their shallow existence. Now, stay with me. I'm not saying your existence isn't valuable.

Like Solomon said many times in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” In this time of re-evaluation, some people took to re-invent themselves, but many just found themselves floundering in the chaos of having all their familiar guideposts removed and tossed aside. This is not the existence God had in mind when He made humans in general, and it certainly isn't what He wants for His children.

God didn't just slap some random cells together to see what came out. He planned you. He shaped you. He knit and wove the fabric of who and what you were to become. He loved you before you entered this world, and He loves you now.

Each and every person has a destiny and calling, by God's design. He has never created a pointless person, for everything that God created was for His purposes and His glory. It doesn't matter that man has been despoiled and fallen by the wiles of the enemy, God still
sees the beauty He has placed in each individual. He carefully chooses their characteristics and personalities, matching them with His craftsmanship and skill to turn each person into a vessel to fit His master plan.

Consider Ephesians 2: 10 (NKJV):
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We find the same word in Psalms 139:14 (NLT):
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

The word “workmanship” is defined in Strong's Concordance (reference number 4161) as follows:
workmanship, poiema (poy-ay-ma) from the verb poieo, “to make”. (Compare “poem” and “poetry”.) The word signifies that which is manufactured, a product, a design produced by an artisan.

The notes in the Spirit-Filled Bible go on to say:
“Poiema emphasizes God as the Master Designer, the universe as His creation (Romans 1:20), and the redeemed believer as His new creation. (Ephesians 2: 10). Before conversion, our lives had no rhyme or reason. Conversion brought us balance, symmetry, and order. We
are God's poem, His work of art.”

So the facts surrounding your conception were less than ideal? So what? Your heavenly Father wants and treasures you. In fact, there is no way to count the number of times He thinks about you. He knows your name. Intimately. (See Psalm 139: 17-18.)

Your circumstances are disappointing? Man created status and social acceptability, not God. He couldn't care less about what society wanted. He wants you.
Think you're too sinful? Too much water under that bridge to be used by God? He delights in using the least likely people for great assignments. He used a pagan temple prostitute (Rahab), a coward (Gideon), murders (David and Paul), and thieves (remember the guy on the cross next to Jesus?). He even used a donkey to spare the life of an errant prophet (check out Numbers 22: 21-33). One way or another, His message gets through. Just be open to it.

You are not pointless or rudderless. You are God's design and creation, placed here and now for a specific purpose whether you can perceive it or not. You are what He wanted, and He treasures you. Now, thank Him, get up, and get about whatever business He has set His your hand to do. It will bring Him glory and bring you peace.