“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” Jeremiah 1:5
A little girl went to visit her grandparents over Christmas. She loved to sit in her grandfather’s lap. One night before bedtime, she was staring right into his face. She looked at her grandfather’s balding head, wrinkled her face and said, “Grandpa, did God make you?” He said, “I’m afraid He did.” She said, “Did He make me, too?” He said, “He sure did!” She thought for a moment and said, “I think He is doing a lot better job now than He used to!”
Jeremiah 1:5 makes it perfectly clear that it is God who creates life. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” He said to Jeremiah; and He would say the same thing to each of us. The word “formed” here means, “to weave,” like you would weave a blanket or take the pieces of a puzzle and put it together. In this context it refers to how conception and the birth process takes place. King David put it this way in Psalm 139:13-14: “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.” That phrase, “knit me together,” is the same Hebrew root word as the word “formed” used by Jeremiah.
Then David continues in verse 16, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” The word for “unformed body” is the only use of the Hebrew word for “embryo” found in Scripture. David is referring here to the very beginning of conception. Further, in Psalm 139:13, the words for “inmost being” in Hebrew literally translates, “my kidneys.” Why would King David say, “You formed my kidneys?” The term “kidneys” was used to refer to the entire complex of organs that make up the inside of the human body. Right down to the DNA strips of our humanity, God knit all of us together. It was God that built this incredible machinery called “the human body” and from its very beginning put all the pieces together so they would work as magnificently as they do.
Both King David and the Prophet Jeremiah, just like all of us, had biological parents. But the truth is God Himself fashions us – knits us together and begins life in the womb. The next time your little child asks you, “Where do babies come from?” all you have to do is say, “They come from God.” That is not only good theology, but also good science.
Dear Lord, what an amazing thing it is that you, God, formed me inside of my mother’s womb. I pray that this incredible truth would change the way I think about myself and about you so that I might have a more biblical perspective of your view of me. In Jesus' name, amen.
Topics: Abortion
