Psalm 139:14

Every single Krass child (possibly with the exception of Alan, I can't remember) had this wonderful 3rd grade teacher by the name of Mrs. Jackson. Mrs. Jackson is and was a legend. Not only was it a MUST to select her with the first overall pick in recess kickball (Her OPS had to be near .989) she was also rather liberal with her skittle distribution. But in addition to all this, Mrs. Jackson had her classes memorize and recite particular biblical passages each year. For whatever reason (insert the Lord) one of these passages popped into my head this morning.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; you works are wonderful, I know that full well."

-Psalm 139:14

We memorized the entirety of Psalm 139 and if I were offered enough skittles I could probably remember the hand motions and voice inflections. My favorite part of the chapter was this verse. We would say each word very slowly, with added exaggeration on the words "praise", "fearfully" and "wonderfully".

I am not intelligent or theologically savvy enough to speculate on what it means to be fearfully made so allow me to take a shot on the wonderfully made part.

We are wonderfully made. We are wonderfully and intentionally made. To me that suggests that the garbage that we inherit: the depression, the lack of self-esteem, the cancer doesn't minimize the fact that God looks at us and says, "Yup, I pretty much hit this one out of the park. I'm very pleased with how I created Karl Krass. Keith Krass, Alan Krass, Jennie Krass, Kevin Krass, Trish Krass, Kari Zawada, Shannon Zawada, Logan Zawada, E-Force Zawada (Ethan) Mrs. Jackson, Wilt Chamberlin are pleasing to me."

I'm not saying that God is somehow responsible for "giving" people terrible diseases. That issue is a book not a blog. What I am saying is that despite the diseases and stuff, God thinks we are wonderful. He didn't slip up in creating you and me.

Sometimes I have to remind myself this. Often times I have to remind myself this.

Awhile back I included a link to the song "desert song" by Hillsong. This morning I was also thinking about the last four lines in the song:

"This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've received I will sow."

Karl has received some pretty good news over the last month or so. Which is awesome. But the refrain of this song is "I will bring praise, I will bring praise, no weapon forged against me shall remain. I will rejoice, I will declare, God is my victory and he is here."

I'm just trying to remind myself to praise him in every season, both good and bad...

Ps To Mrs Jackson: you are an amazing woman. Thank you for making me learn those verses as a 3rd grader. They do matter and they still do. I'm am literally eternally grateful.