Quote[/b] ]Psalm 139:13-16 (NRSV)
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
Quote[/b] ]The psalmist wrote, "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." -Psalm 139:14 (NRSV)
SINCE I was born with no arms and two badly bent legs, you might not think that I am "fearfully and wonderfully made." Often when my wife and I go out, people act shocked to see a short man whose one artificial arm has a hook attached to it. They cannot get past my appearance to see me. But I have come to realize that it is not my outward form that makes me wonderful.
My parents were unable to care for me, but my heavenly Father was always directing and guiding me as I was moved from place to place. At the Shriners' Hospital, I was fitted for my first arm and had many surgeries that enabled me to walk. Just down the street from Good Shepherd Home, my last group home, was a storefront Mennonite Church whose Sunday school teachers came week after week to take me and other children to church. They made me a part of their lives and loved me. Together with one of my nurses, they taught me that I, Jeff Steinberg -- born with no arms and twisted legs -- am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Since the day I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my life, what others call "handicaps" have become a springboard for me to share God's love with a lost and dying world.
Jeff Steinberg (Florida, U.S.A.)
O God, help us to see your loving hand at work in our lives and to know that each of us can be used in your service. Amen.
