Loved Before You Were Born

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”  (Jeremiah 1:5)

God knew you, as he knew Jeremiah, long before you were born or even conceived.  He thought about you and planned for you.  We weren't some cosmic accident, but rather individually knit together by a God who loves us.  I've never had a so-called "conversion moment" as I was raised in a Christian home and Christianity was all I knew.  As a result, I have had a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea that I was made intentionally for a specific purpose.  Honestly, it has been a constant struggle for me to comprehend God's love for me.  To think about God's love meant thinking in general terms in relation to this Creator loving everything that He made.  It wasn't personal enough for me.  And it is for that reason that I have created this blog.  I know God loves me...but I need to learn more about what that means and how to then apply it in showing that love to others.

There are two families in our church that are currently in different stages of adopting a child.  I cannot write enough about the love that is shown through adoption (I'd like to sometime!) but for this post, I want to share the picture of God's love for us that I see through watching our friends.  One of the families has already met the child they are to adopt and I know that their hearts ache to be back with him.  I cannot imagine having to leave a child behind on the other side of the globe.  They've experienced this child's laugh, his smile and warm embrace.  They've seen him play and run and have seen the progression from the shyness of their first encounter to the acceptance and comfort of knowing they will soon be together forever.  As it is with adoption, especially international adoption, there is a waiting period and paperwork that must be contended with and that means weeks of waiting and longing.  But this family now knows who their child is going to be.  Their child has a name, a face, a personality and has captured the love and affection of two people soon to be known as Mommy and Daddy.

Preparations are being made for this child's arrival into their family.  There have been baby showers and shopping trips and the room is decorated with his name proudly spelled out in large white letters across one wall of his bedroom.  There is so much anticipation and so much love that goes into making things perfect for the big day when they walk him through the front door.  I can only imagine that every moment of their days are filled with thoughts of being with their son and showing him a love that he hasn't known before.

Isn't this a fantastic picture of that verse in Jeremiah?  God knew who we were before we were born just as this family now knows their child before his "birth" into their family.  I have 3 children of my own, and I can remember the emotions waiting for the birth of each of them.  The difference was that I did not "know" my child the way these adoptive parents have had a chance to know their son.  In my case, I knew a baby was there and it was mine and I loved him or her no matter what.  But to be able to see the smile, the laughs and get the hugs and kisses before the "birth" - that makes it so much more personal.  God loved us on that personal level.  He knew us by name, He knew our smile, our laugh, our cry, our pain, our struggles, our joys, our excitement...all before we were a twinkle in our parents' eyes. 

"In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God like unborn forests in the acorn cup—long before the echoes awoke the solitudes—before the mountains were brought forth. Long before the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen creatures. Before there was any created being—when the ether was not fanned by an angel’s wing, when space itself had not an existence, when there was nothing save God alone—even then, in that loneliness of Deity and in that deep quiet and profundity, His heart moved with love for His chosen. Their names were written on His heart and then were they dear to His soul. Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world—even from eternity! And when He called me by His Grace, He said to me, “I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.” -- Charles H. Spurgeon

How do we respond to Him? Do we reject His love and forget that we were once 'orphans' in a foreign land or do we cling to him with love and affection?  Remember that God has always thought of you as valuable and that he has a purpose in mind for you.  Now THAT's family planning!