I came back earlier from a movie outing (Harry Potter) with my CG. As I was on the train, I noticed the guy next to me was working with sausage balloons. Pump placed carefully on his lap, he was putting the finishing touches to a heart-shaped weave of balloons. Wow! I think he might be making it for his wife/girlfriend/children.

As he deftly spun and snapped the balloons into shape, the people around him were curious. But even though a lot of people were craning their necks to see how he could do such an impressive piece of balloon art, he was intensely focused on his work.

Wow! Such beautiful balloon art. I couldn't help smiling in awe at the impressive balloon artwork. Especially considering that he was doing it on a crowded MRT train with knick-knacks on his lap.

As I watched his fingers fly with practiced confidence, the balloons took shape, initially in a very mysterious configuration, leaving us spectators guessing what it would turn out to be in the end.

And as he twisted and turned a brown rubber balloon, the framework came into place, and then the twists and turns, the shape of a face started becoming clear. Then he inserted in a pink one. That became a large pair of lips. Finally, with a twist, he added the yellow eyes and purple nose.

At that point, I had to resist the urge to burst out into applause - it was that good.

While watching, I was reminded that this is how God shapes our lives, and how He created us. We watch Him shape the big and little pieces of our lives, and the angels watch too. We start speculating excitedly - "that piece He's holding there - I think He's making a big heart!" "No, that's the shape of a mighty arm!" "Naw... that's a sharp brain he's making!" - and the angels whisper in awe to one another of what God is doing in our lives. "Even angels long to look into these things." (1 Peter 1:12c)

And His hands are so intensely upon our lives. Just as the man knitted the delicate balloons to form, first a simple but beautiful heart, and then a complicated face, so did God knit our delicate DNA and proteins into living beings - each set greater than the ones before.

"Did you not...clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?"
Job 10:10-11

"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

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

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be."

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you."
Psalm 139:13-18

So, for the first time in my life, I experientially understood analogically, the awesome joy of seeing God's work of creation in progress... and how seeing His creation in progress, just simply couldn't help but smile so much when I think of how He not only shaped us physically, but our very lives and destinies, even though right now it is a mystery what He is making us into. Even the angels don't know just how wonderful. But one thing for sure - when they saw Him spin the galaxies into being, and shape the earth with His very own hands...

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-

while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
Job 38:4-7

Wow. :D And... something precious too: even when you and I are wondering what God is shaping us into, what His exact plans for your life and mine are - don't be discouraged... you may not understand now, but frankly, the un-understandable things that we have to all go through - are to serve as the foundations of His perfect plans for you and me!