birth

My family keep having babies. My total of grandchildren now stands at eight with an age range from eleven to a few weeks and I know there will probably be more to come. I am hoping to hit double figures and then – who knows? Perhaps there will be more pattering of tiny feet around the corner or I will become great granddad and be eligible for embarrassing rounds of applause when introduced as such.

One of the few things I can accurately say of any of you who might be reading this is that you were born. What I can’t tell are the circumstances behind your birth. With my own children each was wanted and loved. We wanted four but they didn’t all turn up at convenient times or how we might of wished. Behind the birth of every one of my grandchildren lies a story, each different from the others, each child unique and special. David in Psalm 139 writes of being conceived and developing inside his mother’s womb. He writes in verses 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.

No matter how you might feel about yourself, the truth is that you have been fearfully and wonderfully crafted, watched over and cared for by Father God. My eldest son is the latest of my children to become a parent and has kept on talking about how incredible his daughter is remarking on her hair, her toes and fingers and her nose. I tell him that she is his finest piece of work but we both know the handiwork of God when we see it!

Not every birth situation is ideal. Some of us suffer and are in pain as we might have been described as an accident or unwanted. My eldest sister died before I was born, killed as a pedestrian in a road traffic accident. The doctor encouraged my mum to have another child – me. At a family funeral I was described to my face by friends of my parents as the ‘replacement’. It didn’t make me feel great about myself but before you start worrying about me I have worked it through and I found these verses particularly helpful. In John Ch 1 v12 it says, Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

When I began to follow Jesus Ibecame His child, one that is loved and given purpose by Him, born of God, so despite the circumstances of my natural entry into this world He has put His hand on me because He loves me, he loves me and I will say it again, he loves me!!