Intricately Woven Together

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth."

(Psalm 139:15 ESV)

I used to have a very irrational fear about the inner anatomy of the human body when I was a little girl (back in the 1990s). In doing some research on this now, this phobia, in essence, is called abodyemigphobia, which is the fear of seeing internal organs.

I'm not 100% sure what triggered it initially, but when I was 4 or 5 years old, I do remember there happened to be a news item on TV about a heart surgery where they showed a short video of the surgery being performed, which meant seeing the open chest of a patient and the heart itself while it was being worked on. Obviously, it's rather traumatic for a young kid to see images of that nature; although, to be fair, I was supposed to be in bed already, so my parents didn't know I had come out of my room and had seen that news item.

I do know, though, that my fear was sent into the stratosphere at 6 years old when my lovely and well-meaning mom (God bless her!) bought an age-appropriate book about human anatomy from a thrift store where she showed me a diagram of the anatomy of the ear. My vivid imagination at that age got the best of me when I saw that image, and I cowered and literally had a meltdown as a result. It horrified me to think I had those components inside of me! There are bones inside my ears?! There's a snail shell-like structure in there called the cochlea (pronounced "cock-lee-ah")?! Yikes! And there's a drum in each ear?! What the heck!

Oh, and then there was one time a children's show on TV thought it would be cute to show disembodied brains attached to spinal cords hovering midair for some reason. You can imagine how traumatizing it was to see that!

And still, I was clearly a glutton for punishment, because when I was 7 years of age, there was another age-appropriate book on a shelf in my classroom at school about—you guessed it—human anatomy. Curiosity got the better of me yet again, and I took it off the shelf for our quiet reading time and looked through it (including reading the descriptions of the anatomy and how it functions). Bad idea... Cue the freakout!

I can laugh about this now, but back then it was terrifying to me that all of these organs and vessels and muscles and bones were inside me. My mind couldn't comprehend that these components were inside me, doing what they do (again, children's imaginations can run quite wild; mine sure did).

But in a very strange way, that terror was a recognition within me at the time about how extraordinarily complex the human body is in its design. It's so unbelievably complex, in fact, that we still don't know how the human body fully works and how each part functions and serves its purpose to this day. We know a lot about it, but we don't know everything! Only the One who intricately weaves us together does, and describing it as "intricately woven" in Psalm 139:15 is the perfect wording used here.

But in a very strange way, that terror was a recognition within me at the time about how extraordinarily complex the human body is in its design.

If you read Psalm 139 in its entirety, David ponders how intimately God is aquainted with our innermost being in all aspects: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. He begins in awe of how well God knows our hearts and minds, then he moves into recognizing there is no place in heaven above, on earth, or under the earth that he could hide from God's presence, from which he moves into marvelling at how amazing humans are designed, followed by appreciating the massive sum of God's thoughts. David then takes a quick and random detour to ask God to smite his enemies, and then he comes back to asking God to search his heart and mind for any sinfulness within him.

Phew. That's a lot to pack into a psalm such as this!

But I want to focus in on verses 13 to 16, because they inform you and me about a very important truth:

Did you catch that? God creates and oversees our inner workings from the very moment of our conception right through to our dying breath. And because of that, He knows every single detail there is to know about each of us. He knows us far better than we know ourselves! That is mind-blowing! He is so intimately acquainted with how "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) as each nanosecond passes by. Nothing goes unnoticed. God has beautifully and intricately woven us into who He's created and envisioned us to be so that we may partner with Him to bring that to fruition. This speaks volumes to His character and His love towards us all, and it speaks volumes to His nearness to and within us!

Wonderful are Your works, indeed, Lord God!

And because He is so deeply involved in both our creation and our lives as a whole, we can rest assured He is also deeply involved with our growth and maturity in all aspects, too.

Our frames are not hidden from Him and haven't been since we were in our mothers' wombs, where He made us in secret. This reflects onto tree rings, because they reveal the literal framework of a tree over its lifespan. He uses our proverbial rings to remind us of how far we've come in our growth spiritually. God's eyes see the unformed substance. And, like tree rings, our life rings are knitted together, forming our inward parts, and intricately woven in the depths of the earth, so to speak. Praise God!

He knows us far better than we know ourselves!

Did you notice at the beginning of this blog post how I referred to the fear I had as a little girl in the past tense? There's a beautiful story behind how that fear was finally conquered.

I came home that day after I had looked through that book in my classroom, and I was a blubbering mess. My poor mom! Here is her daughter in shambles because pictures of the brain and other anatomy have frightened her! She was doing everything she could to calm me, reassure me, and help me understand there was nothing to fear, but it wasn't working much at that moment.

But, as she was talking to me, I happened to get an itch on my scalp that I, without giving it a thought, reached up to scratch.

And that's when the lightbulb went on in my mom's mind...

She took me by the hands and said, "See, sweetie! Your brain just told you that there was an itch on your head, so it sent a message to your arm and hand to raise up and scratch it."

Wait! What? My brain just did that, and my arm got the message to do so? And they worked together to alleviate the itch?

Whoa! Mind blown.

In that moment, the fear I had instantly disappeared, and my fear was replaced with awe and wonder.

In that moment, my soul came to know very well how uniquely and intricately woven our bodies are.

In that moment, a "life ring" formed, which I now look back on fondly as a milestone of growth in my faith journey.

Fast forward a few years, and for 15+ years from 2008 to 2023, I worked as a medical transcriptionist. And you know what? I looked at a lot of anatomy diagrams and pictures throughout that time, and that only served to grow my wonder and awe at how intricately woven together you and I truly are.

"My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth."

In that moment, my soul came to know very well how intricately woven together humans are.

Now it's your turn! What does "intricately woven together" mean to you personally? And does it deepen your appreciation for who God has designed you to be? Comment below!

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This blog is where you and I will explore what trees and their characteristics reveal about God, humanity, and life. I pray that as you join me here you will see the measurable growth in your own life and see God's loving kindness and faithfulness in all of it.

In the meantime, check out Kelly Polhamus' blog, "Whispers in the Wilderness," and Liz Trickey's blog, "God of My Depths," for more insight into how nature reveals God's character in and to us.