Beginnings

I’ve struggled to write my first blog post and sometimes even wondered why I was doing this. I’ve never had a blog before. Why start one now, at my age? Then I remembered. The Lord called me to write. I still wasn’t sure what to write about, so I prayed, and I waited, until a single word echoed in my mind. Beginnings.

Almost everything has a beginning. I used to think my beginning was when I was born. I heard stories from my parents about that day. Dad had a motorcycle accident when Mom was pregnant with me, and when he woke up, groggy from anesthesia, the nurse told him he had a baby girl. He was shocked. The nurse then explained to him that he had surgery after a motorcycle accident, and Mom went into labor when she learned about his accident. I was born two months early while Dad was still in surgery. When Mom took me home from the hospital, I was an ugly red preemie. One neighbor saw me and told my mom she’d never raise me. I was a sickly baby and there were times Mom thought our neighbor was right, but God had plans for me and I’m still here.

Now, as I read my Bible, I’m often reminded that God knows each one of us and He has plans for us, even before we’re born. In Psalm 139:13 King David writes, “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Then, in Psalm 139:16, he writes, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” David is saying that God had his days planned out for him while he was still in his mother’s womb. This evidence points to personhood beginning at conception, rather than at birth. God had a similar plan for the life of the pre-born Jeremiah: “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” (Jeremiah 1:5). What a beautiful reminder that God has a plan and a purpose for each life that is conceived. He sees each one and loves each one. Babies are precious in God’s sight.

As I consider the beginnings of people like you and me, I’m reminded that our creator, the true and living God of the Bible, had no beginning and He will have no ending. The Bible clearly teaches that God is eternal. The word eternal means “everlasting, having no beginning and no end.”

Psalm 90:2 says, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Humans have a hard time understanding what it means to be eternal, but the Bible makes it clear that God always has been and always will be. Genesis 1:1 shows us that God existed, even before time began. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The true and living God of the Bible consists of three persons in one God, and all three persons are eternal. 1 John 5:7 says, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

When Moses asked God who he was, God replied, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you'” (Exodus 3:14). This shows us that the true and living God of the Bible is self-existent. He is eternal, and He is who He always has been and who He always will be.

John 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”

Romans 1:20 reminds us, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

I’m still amazed that the true and living God of the Bible, the Eternal Almighty Creator of the universe, knows everything about me, yet He loves me with an everlasting love. He knows everything about you too, and He loves you with His unconditional everlasting love.

My friend, will you join me in praising Him?

 

Psalm 95:6

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”

Deuteronomy 33:27

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”