I’ve been silent here for a while. Not for any reason in particular, except that life happened, I blinked, and all of the sudden eight weeks have passed during which I failed to make time to write. Life has seasons and this was a busy one. Yet, in the silence, the Lord has been teaching me and working on me, growing me in my walk with Him in answer to prayer to that regard. For that, I am thankful.
I’ve also become a grandmother since I was here last. My daughter had a daughter and just like that I’m no longer just Mom, but now also Grammie. There is something about holding this teeny, tiny, squishy, curled-up ball of helpless, vulnerable humanity that melts my heart. She’s perfect in every way and so delicate. I have stood in awe since she was born, at the mercy and grace of God, and His goodness in providing such a beautiful gift to our family – newborn female life, made in the image of God. It’s affected me more that I expected it would.
When I was blessed to become a mother to my children – two of them, a boy and a girl – I was not a Christian. In fact, ‘God’, ‘Jesus’, the ‘Bible’, were not part of my vocabulary, nor part of my understanding, at all. I was an unaware unbeliever (another word not in my vocabulary), having grown up in an educated and civilized home in Christianized North America, but having the same knowledge of Christianity as an unreached people group.
Where I thought my children came from, I actually do not know. Honestly, being so self-focused, I never really thought about it. Science was king, so I suppose I just assumed biology was doing what it was suppose to, just like in the Grade 10 textbooks – conception, cells reproducing to become an embryo, then a fetus, and finally, ‘voila!’, a child, as he or she bursts forth into the world. One thing I do know for sure, I would never have said that my children came from God, or that God had anything to do with their existence.
Thanks be to God that He changed that as He brought me out of darkness and into His marvelous light and revealed to me the truth of His Word, who He is and what He has done through Christ for me.
Thankfully, I understand truth now that my children are bearing children. Having been saved for 16 1/2 years now, I am very familiar with Psalm 139, Genesis 1, and many other scriptures that clearly state God is the Creator, giver and sustainer of all life. The day my granddaughter was born I held her in my arms and in that moment I could only see her as a precious gift from God. That night I spent time in Psalm 139 and couldn’t help but worship the LORD, Giver of life.
The world screams from every direction that new life is an act of chance, that the cells are an ’embryo’ or ‘fetus’, nameless, without worth until ‘it’ breathes ‘it’s’ first breath outside the womb. Cells, labelled with a cold medical term, can easily become an inconvenience because of their apparent lack of life, purpose or value, making them easy to dispose of. And if ‘it’ does come forth to become human, it’s value is really no more than a tree or a wild animal, for all are happenstance, evolved from some single-celled slime billions of year ago. So this child’s purpose and value is nothing unless he looks into himself to find his value, make his own value, create his own purpose and happiness. The world screams that self-esteem, self-love, self-care keeps us strong, healthy and living longer, happier lives. Yet the world is depressed, sad, unhealthy, like it has never been, so we look into ourselves further. Always turning up purposeless and empty, but wearing a smile on our faces. This sad, sad tale is an unfortunate reality for much of the world today. It was my reality so long ago.
And then there is God’s tale. A true, good and real story. A love story seemingly too good to be true. But it is true.
Listen to these words:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depth of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:13-16
God speaks from His Word that He is making those cells in a mothers’ womb reproduce. From one, to two, to four, to 26,000,000,000 cells. Each cell knitted one at a time into a perfectly shaped human being, moving, growing, hiccupping, kicking, twirling and turning in her mothers womb, unseen to the world outside, but known by God. Intricately woven, wonderfully made, perfectly planned and purposed. And loved by her Creator beyond measure.
While the world sees a lifeless group of multiplying cells as a mere medical term and so easily disposed of, God is intricately weaving this child together and writing every one of her day’s in His book, before she is even brought forth into the world.
Maybe one verse of Scripture isn’t enough to convince you of the worth and precious value of a child in the womb, or an infant newly born, or perhaps even your own worth and value as a created man or woman. Listen to these precious words of God:
“The Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4
“Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you.” Isaiah 44:2
“Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb. I am the LORD, who makes all things, who alone stretched out the heavens….” Isaiah 44:24
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;…” Jeremiah 1:5
There is an intentionality to these words of God about human life. Life is purposeful, wonderful, perfectly and minutely planned and formed by God Himself. Human life is designed and created. After nine months of secrecy within the womb, the new life bursts forth, his or her days ordained, fixed and full of meaning because he or she – created in the image of God – was created with intent and for a purpose.
Created by God.
Created for God.
Created in the image of God having worth and value – not because anyone gives it or assigns it, but because God created her or him.
And because He created her or him, He loves this child. Each child, whether currently 2 cells, or 26 billion cells, is loved dearly by God.
As I look at this precious little granddaughter I hold often in my arms, I think of the incredible work of God, and I can’t help but to praise Him and wonder with the psalmist what is man that your are mindful of him?!
Can I challenge you to think of this the next time you see a newborn baby, and to see her life for what it is – a valuable gift from your Creator – and worship Him?
Take up and Read:
“Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!” – Psalm 8
The Light for My Path 
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