I don’t know a lot about knitting. But I know it’s a verb, and I’m assuming it requires the knitter’s attention to turn out halfway decent.
I bring this up because the Bible says God knit us together – you and me and every other person – in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13).
That means He actively creates us, rarely, if ever, taking His eyes off of us, and never diverting His attention from us. For 9.5 months straight, on average.
I don’t think I’ve ever done anything with that kind of commitment for that long. God knits us together 24/7. But even if I give myself grace and allow myself to sleep, I still haven’t done anything with that kind of intense focus and investment for almost 10 months.
I did read through the Bible in a year once… but that only required focus 15 minutes each day.
I did complete 17 years of schooling in 9 month intervals… but that only required focus 15 minutes each day. (Public school, baby.)
I did grow two humans for 38.5 and 39 weeks… but I was a pretty passive observer on account of God doing all the actual knitting. I handed Him “yarn” in the form of prenatal vitamins and “nutrients” from my weekly pieces of fruit, but He really did all the work.
All that to say, God does some pretty awesome work putting babies together.
- The moment a baby is conceived, all the DNA is present to determine eye color, hair color, height, personality quirks, etc.
- God makes the baby’s heart beat within the first 18 days after conception. (It might be even sooner, but we have yet to develop the technology to prove that.)
- The spine and eyes are clearly visible by 24 days.
- By 6 weeks we can detect brain waves.
- At 7 weeks the baby has its own blood type and develops 100,000 new brain cells every minute.
- By 8 weeks the baby has all the organs an adult human has.
- At 12 weeks the baby’s rubber bones harden.
- The second and third trimesters are spent growing so the baby can live outside the womb on its own.
(I’d be remiss not to point out the strictest laws in the US allow abortions to be performed until 15 weeks. But that’s another post.)
As these ideas tumbled around in my heart the other day, I realized something. Maybe part of the reason God loves us so ridiculously much is because of how much time and emotional energy He puts into making us. He methodically crafts us, cell by cell, intensely concentrating on building us just the way He wants to build us. And as the weeks go by, His already limitless affection for us only increases. (I know, this doesn’t make sense, but neither does infinity plus 1 equals infinity. Nevertheless, it’s true.)
I remember the day I fell in love with my first child. We went for an ultrasound at 19 weeks to find out if she was healthy and what gender she was. I hadn’t seen a ton of ultrasounds in my day… maybe not any. When a picture of my baby popped on the screen, my breath was gone. I could see every vertebrae, every bone in her hands and feet, her sweet profile. And all of a sudden she was real and she was mine and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I didn’t know one thing about her, but I knew I loved her with all my heart.
The Lord feels that way about you and me. He felt that way the day He conceived of us in His mind; He felt that way every day He spent creating us in our mother’s wombs. And He feels that way every day He spends continuing to fashion us into the image of Christ. He is highly emotionally invested in us simply because we are His.
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