I Saw a Miracle Yesterday

I saw a miracle yesterday. I saw a newborn baby.

What an amazing miracle the birth of a baby is! The little baby boy I saw was the son of one of our young women in the congregation. He is a healthy 8 pound, nine ounce bundle of joy. He may be only 20 inches long now, but he is really big in the hearts of his mother and his family. His mom was beaming with the glow only the mother of a newborn baby can possess. The two of them together were a beautiful picture of health and life.

Seeing a newborn baby is a wonderful experience. Babies are precious and they underscore for us the sacredness of life. Life is important to God and should be important to us. Human life is pronounced sacred by God because it is made in His image. God's character goes into the creation of every person. Human life is made by God and valuable to Him. Listen to these two familiar verses:

(Jer 1:5) "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

(Psalm 139:13-16) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (14) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (15) My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, (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.

It is God Who made us and gave us life.

And the wonderful thing is that God has a plan for every human life, for every little baby. That plan includes life and not death. You know the well-known words of Jeremiah:
(Jer 29:11) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I believe those words, originally spoken by the prophet for the Hebrew people, also reveal God's care and love of us through Jesus Christ, as witnessed by the revelations of the New Testament.

The womb of a mother is not just a blob of flesh -- it is a sacred place, for it is where humans become partners with God in the creation of human beings. And from the fist moments at conception, the baby is not just a fetus; it is not just potential human life. It is a baby. It is a living human being. Consider that:
At 18 days ... the baby's heart begins to beat.
At 40 days ... brain waves can be detected.
At 56 days ... the baby responds to touch.
At 77 days ... the baby has fingerprints.
At 98 days ... the baby can hear.

During the entire time in the womb the miracle of life is happening, not just at birth. A baby's life is precious to God. A baby's life is important to God. God has as much a plan for a baby's life as He has for you or me. The baby, like us, is made in God's image. God's character went into the baby's creation.

All life is precious to God. You never know what promise and power God has in store for a baby's life. His plans are often not indicated by how the baby was born or under what circumstances the baby came into the world. Consider that our Savior was born under questionable conditions in a stable.

Or consider the following. There’s a preacher and wife who are very poor. They already have fourteen children. Now she finds out she’s pregnant with the fifteenth. They’re living in tremendous poverty. Considering the economic implications of another child, would you recommend the woman get an abortion? If you would, you would have killed John Wesley, one of the greatest evangelists in the history of the church.

Or consider this situation from the past -- The father is sickly, the mother has tuberculosis. They’ve had four children. The first is blind, the second is dead, the third is deaf and the fourth has tuberculosis, like his mother. The woman finds out she’s pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you consider recommending an abortion? If you would, you would have killed Ludwig von Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all time. Or consider this. A white man raped a thirteen-year-old black girl and she got pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending an abortion? If you would, you would have killed Ethel Waters, the black gospel singer who ministered to millions of people around the globe with Billy Graham. All life is precious to God.

What about babies with special needs? Well, the Bible assures all life is important, and human life especially. No one created in the image of God is less valued by God than anyone else. Every person, special needs or not, is precious in God’s sight. Just because society places a higher value on people without special needs does not mean that God has the same perspective. When God creates a person, he creates that person to accomplish his divine purposes. Keep in mind that God’s purposes may not be the same as our purposes. All life is precious to God.

Yes, the little baby I saw yesterday is a miracle. Praise God for babies and the promise of life!