God was there first

15Jul
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you….
-Jeremiah 1:5

Lord, you have searched for me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways….. For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
-Psalm 139:1,2,3,13


It’s an experience that is so important me that it keeps returning to me – especially when I am worried or afraid.


My 1½ year old daughter is being wheeled into the pediatric surgery for treatment of a kidney infection. We don’t know what’s going to happen to her. Her mother and I have signed permission for the surgeon to do what’s necessary. She’s out of our hands. We’re standing at that dreadful door of the operating room with our priest, watching her go in.


Our priest takes our hands. I am holding my wife’s in my left and my priest’s in my right. He says a prayer. I have no idea what he said. But I do remember that I had a quietening feeling and heard or felt God saying: “She’ll be OK, Richard. I took care of her before I gave her to you. I can go places with her that you can’t.”


What more needs to be said? My wife and I did not know her “in the womb”. God and others knew and cared for her before He gave her to us. She was 6 weeks old when she came to be ours for adoption.


As a parent I am all but terrified when I can not care for or defend my helpless child or other loved one. But. God was there first. He’s got her!


The same is so very true about other concerns and frights that I have. And in these times I have many.


So I apply the words from Jeremiah and Psalm 139 to myself: “Richard,” God says “I knew you before you were in your Mother’s womb. I have searched for you and found you. I know all your ways.”


And in the risen Jesus I hear him say “Fear not.”


Musical Reflection - He Dwells with Us - Messianic Choir



Lord Jesus, there are so many things that I am worried about. Help me to know that you are with me now as you were in my Mother’s womb…. And even before you formed me. Amen.

Children

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