August 27 – Birth Day

        Psalm 139:13-16a - “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....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, your eyes saw my unformed body....” NIV © 1973

        The psalmist here paints a beautiful poetic picture of God creating a new physical life. It is interesting to note that the NIV uses the words “unformed body” in verse 16. The original Hebrew word actually means “embryo”. This verse alone, although there are others, (e.g. Jer. 1:5), confirms that life in God's mind begins at conception. Humans are his special creation (Gen. 1:26).

        There are more than 7 billion people on planet Earth in 2016. That averages to 19,178,082 living persons who share the same birth day in a calendar year. Does that large number make you feel insignificant? Yet God knows each one of us from the day that we were conceived, and even before, as Jeremiah 1:5 suggests.

        With whom do you share your birth date? Check out http://www.onthisday.com/birthdays to find some people remembered in history who have the same birth date as you. I share my birth day with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, actor Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), and Anna of Brandenburg, queen of Denmark (16^th cent). While I will not be remembered in the history annals of the world, God remembers me right now. I thank him that he is my Father and God, the most powerful creator and inventor of all time.