For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…
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.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

Psalm 139:13, 15-17

Every vein was perfectly placed when I was in my mother’s womb. As a child, I ran and played without a thought about the miracle of my heart beating or my blood flowing. When I was a teen my body changed into womanhood, including all the normal mood swings, but I was still oblivious to the wonder of my brain directing my body parts or my veins carrying my blood. I had children and aged, but my health allowed me to come and go at will, my worst ailments being a backache or headache, so I was still mindless of the miracle of the daily ebb and flow of my body… until now.

Now I am mindful of my heart beating irregularly, of the intricacies and cooperation my unseen body parts, of the miraculous complexities of the human body. I had a stroke, went into a-fib, and, this week, had a cardiac ablation. We call a CT (computed tomography) of the brain, the loop recorder in my chest, and the ablation procedure modern day medical miracles.

As I contemplated what was about to happen—a doctor would insert catheters into two veins, directing them up into my heart, and sensors would record my heart’s electricity, identifying the area causing the arrhythmia and create small scars in my heart to block the irregular rhythms—I was awed. Yes, a modern day medical miracle. But it pales in comparison to the miracle of my creation.

God wove those veins in place when He formed me. They were in place when I toddled and grew and aged. Throughout those years my heart beat with regularity, until it didn’t. The mercy is that I overcame the physical challenges of stroke and a-fib. But, with all due respect, I must put modern medicine in its place because, as astonishing as it is, it pales in comparison to the miracle of God’s intricate creation. Indeed, medicine only discovers the details of God’s amazing design and learns aspects of the human body’s functionality that God ordered. He is my Creator, Designer, Sustainer, Healer. Selah.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (verse 14).

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, 
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
Psalm 46:4

The river is for us—a source of supply, an origin of life, a spring of hope—a river of blessing that flows from God. It makes us glad by feeding our faith, satisfying our souls, and renewing our spirits. In times of turmoil I find it is often enough to simply say, “There is a river.”

God is the source, supplying all we need when we drink deeply. There is no shortage where God dwells; He is with us and promises help (verse 5). Even when “nations are in uproar” and “kingdoms fall,” the earth melts at the sound of His voice (verse 6).

There is a river. Let the certainty of that truth assure your heart and minister peace to your soul.

In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

Psalm 18:6

And what does God do about it? We read the opening verses to this psalm last week, seeing Him as our fortress, rock, shield, and more. But what is God doing when we see no evidence of action? Ah, the unseen, uncomprehended, unfathomable movements of God! The remainder of Psalm 18 gives us a glimpse of what happens in the heavenlies when God answers us:

• The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook…
• Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
• He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
• He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind…
• Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
• The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
• He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them…
• He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
• He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me…

Don’t be discouraged, my friends. God is always doing more than we see. He is compelled by love, unwaveringly faithful, and resolutely turning our trials into blessings.

“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me” (v19).