Written June 6, 2012

Now that summer-y weather is reaching the Great White North once again, it’s time to start tackling the nice, long list of outdoor projects that my lovely wife was able to create over the nice, long winter.  Among the top priorities for this summer is a raised veggie garden so we can grow our own tomatoes and squash and pumpkins and carrots and breakfast cereals and orangutans…

(Monty Python, anyone?)

A fundamental requirement for owning and operating a raised veggie garden is installing a box in which to own and operate said garden.  We toyed with the idea of buying a kit, but in an off-hand kind of way I mentioned that “I could probably just build that…”, and in to my surprise Erin agreed to give it a shot. This made me very happy, because it gave me an excuse to use power tools, and it’s an undeniable fact that power tools and sawdust are good for my soul from time to time.

The picture you are about to see is real.  It has not been altered or photo-shopped in any way; it is my pure and unadulterated creation in all its glory, and I invite you to bask in it with me:

Beautiful, isn’t it?  The sleek lines, the attention to detail…I’m getting emotional just writing this.

Ok, so it may not be the carpentry masterpiece likely to capture the hearts of gardeners and art critics alike, but it’s  my  creation and dang it, I’m a little bit proud of what I did.  In the beginning, there was nothing but 2 sections of 2×12 cedar and a handful of all-weather screws; in the end, because of my effort and intervention, those individual parts were woven together into something they wouldn’t have otherwise been without me, and something greater than themselves alone: a veggie garden box. 

That’s when I got to thinking…

If this is how I feel about creating a goofy wooden box, how much more must God feel about what God has created?

I mean, I felt enough pride and affection for this simple thing that I took the time to 1) take a picture of it, and 2) spend an hour writing about it for this blog.  What’s more, every time I see it when I step out the back door I feel it all over again.  I’ve got history with this thing; there was blood and sweat involved in its creation!  (Literally; it was about 90 degrees out and I stabbed myself with a splinter while screwing a couple boards together.  Hardcore stuff, man.)  How much more pride and affection must God feel when looking around at creation?

And I don’t just mean the mountains and valleys and oceans and rain forests.  The Psalms are full of descriptions of God as Creator of all things, but most especially of you and me.  A really cool part about that is, all it took for God to whisk the whole of nature into existence was a word, but when it came to creating us, Psalm 139:13 says that God “knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Now I’m not much of a knitter per se, but from what I’ve observed knitting is a very hands-on and involved activity.  People who attempt to knit tend not to do it carelessly; there is focus and concentration at play, and if there isn’t then little Sally is gonna get some pretty jacked-lookin’ mittens from Gam-Gam this Christmas.

The point is, God loves you. I realize this isn’t exactly a brand-new idea; but I do think it’s really easy to forget from day to day.  We are a culture of people who seem not to like ourselves all that much, and it seems to be getting worse.  Eating disorders, addictions, cosmetic surgery…it’s everywhere.  We’re not content with us, and I’m no different if I’m being honest. There’s plenty of superficial stuff I would change about me, and it all stems from the fact that I don’t think enough about the fact that the all-powerful Creator of EVERYTHING loves me, because God made me with love.

Maybe you don’t struggle with this.  If not, that is awesome and I hope you thank God and all the people who have loved and supported and accepted you for you right now.  But chances are, you get what I’m saying because you’ve been there.  Or you are there now.  But you don’t have to live there or even visit there again, because you are God’s little knit mittens.  God loves you. God delights in you. God put blood and sweat into making you and did it all on purpose.  God is proud of who you are and who you can become when you start to trust that how God made you is exactly right for who God wants you to be.