"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."
Psalm 139:14
As I glanced down at my watch through bleary eyes, I saw it was already 9 pm. Procrastination on my daughter’s part led us to this last-minute review of 7th-grade science. Despite my tiredness, I was more concerned about the growing frustration in her eyes. Slowly, I once again reviewed the highlighted vocabulary words and concepts from years long gone.
Suddenly, I began to make funny names of all the scientific formulas. To my joy, my daughter’s eyes lit up with understanding. She thought it was humorous hearing her mom come up with “E" for Effort, "WO" for Work Output, and "WI” for Work Input (E = WO ÷ WI). Speaking of work!
The sillier I was with the abbreviations, the more fun it became. By the time we neared the end of the chapter, we realized a fascinating concept — our body is the most used complex machine. The intricacies required just to move from a sedentary state to movement are extraordinary. As we reviewed the human body in this light — with the joints forming the fulcrum and the muscles moving as the input — we smiled at the thought that any movement, from taking down an ingredient off the shelf in the kitchen to picking up something off the floor or running the vacuum, was the WO or work output.
But really, it was the “Woah!”
I stopped and told my daughter what came to my mind in that moment, which was the text found in Psalm 139:14, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” There in the simple and complex machine’s learning time together, we experienced an epiphany of God’s careful attention to detail equipping us with the tools necessary to do the work He’s given us to do — no matter how simple or how grand.
As my daughter went back to drilling the formulas for energy, work, and power, I let my mind wander for a moment to the true Power in my life that imbues me with the energy necessary to stay the course in this world and in the time of Earth’s history we are living. Only through the work input of studying my Bible and staying connected to God in prayer am I able to see the output of the work He desires to use me for today.
Call to Action
Think about how the complex machine you are can be used in a simple way for the Kingdom today. Stop, pray, and ask Jesus what you can do for the work of His Kingdom.
All scripture taken from the King James Version.
