The Undiscovered Country

A God�s Eye View

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
         and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
         Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
         as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
         Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
         before a single day had passed. ~ Psalm 139:13-16

A few days ago, my neighbor and I talked about ultrasounds.

“They are neat; you keep thinking, ‘wow, I created that,’” he said.

I didn’t say it, but my reaction was, “I didn’t create anything.”

Sure, a little human grows inside me, but I have little to do with it except provide the raw materials. Even then, I have little control over that except by what I eat. I am but the incubator.

All I can lay claim to is Dave and I opening ourselves to the possibility of children. God took care of the rest.

Some believe that although God watches over everything and everyone, he doesn’t have a literal hand in every flower that blooms, or every human conceived. He doesn’t necessarily decide where every seed will fall, or which sperm will meet each egg. I lean toward this belief as well. That’s why he created DNA. It is the blueprint, and nature then reads that blueprint to build from.

And yet, I firmly believe God watches his creation grow, even delights in it. If I’m excited about little Thomas (Kidney Bean’s real name. We have yet to decide on a middle name, though) moving and growing, surely God is more enthralled than I am.

Because of technology available today, specifically the ultrasound, many expecting parents get a glimpse of what for millennia has been the sole purview of God. It’s a black and white, two-dimensional fuzzy view, but still leaves many silent with awe.

I won’t discover the baby’s hair color, eye color, if he’ll be tall and skinny like his dad, or short and stout (yep, I’m a little teapot) like me until after he’s born. I also don’t know his likes, dislikes, what he’ll be good at or have to work hard for, if he’ll laugh like his dad or his mom, and ten-thousand other little details of his physique and personality.

These are still the details only God has knowledge of, and he’s not telling. I’m glad, though. It still leaves room for mystery, and gives this mere human the anticipation of discovery.