This week you are the size of a radish or a large green olive. I have been taking photos of the fruits and vegetables that are close to your size, while holding them in the palm of my hand. I like to look at the tiny grape, or olive, or whatever you are that week, and imagine that if I could hold you, that is how amazingly little and beautiful you would be. I know I am holding you inside my body instead, which is such an amazing thing. But seeing with my eyes how it might be to hold you right now, if I could, is such an awestruck experience each week.
Seeing how you have grown in such an amazingly short time – in just a single week – is so crazy that it’s hard to grasp. Seeing a tiny object cradled between my fingers makes it visual, which makes it more comprehensible to me. I can’t wait until you are here, and I can see you, and hold you in my hands. Of course, I want you to stay growing strong and healthy for a long time, so you will be ready to take on the world when you arrive.
Your Daddy and I visited YouTube this weekend to watch more sonograms of ten week old babies. It was amazing to see some babies bouncing around, and others just chillin’ out. We’ve had friends tell us that their babies who danced in-utero were also very active once they arrived into oxygenated air, and their babies who relaxed in-utero tended to also be more cool and collected outside the womb. I wonder what you are doing inside my uterus? Are you jumping? Are you napping? Are you discovering your new fingers and toes?
We watched one baby who would crunch up in a little ball in one side of the uterus, squatting down on his little legs, then he would push off with this feet against the uterine wall, and jump across the small space until he bounced off the other side. He did this over and over. I wonder, did he become a professional gymnast? Or cliff diver?
According to the medical field, you can now officially be called a fetus. You are no longer a medical mass of cells – you have a medical identity. Thankfully, you don’t need to reach ten weeks to have a spiritual identity. Your heart and soul was God-breathed into you the moment two pieces of DNA merged into one. That was two months ago now!
This week your bones and cartilage are beginning to form. They will still be flexible and fragile, but the skeleton that will support your skin and muscles will begin taking shape. Your primary organs, such as your heart, liver, and kidneys, have developed adequately to begin functioning on their own inside your body. Your head is as big as the rest of your body all put together, because the oh-so-vital brain needs plenty of space to develop, and tell the rest of the body how to pull itself together.
In the book of Job, the writer talks about how God assembled his body when he was a tiny olive just like you.
“[God] Your hands shaped me and made me… Remember that You molded me like clay… Did you not clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in Your providence watched over my spirit.” (Job 10:8-12)
As you are assembled this week, your bones and sinews (tendons), forming, may the Lord clothe you in life and kindness. May your spiritual bone structure also form and take shape, becoming one of a child who will stand strong in the face of opposition, knowing Who is responsible for your life.
In the book of Psalms, David writes how the Lord protected his bones. This Scripture is considered part of the prophecy about Jesus; that when he died on the cross, none of His bones would be broken. In those days, it was typical for the victim of crucifixion to take several days to die, either of exposure, or more frequently, of dehydration. To ease a man’s death, the soldiers would sometimes break the victim’s legs while he was hanging on the cross. This made him unable to use his legs to lift his body up to breathe, so he would die in a matter of minutes from lack of oxygen. They considered this more merciful than allowing the person to die slowly. However, Jesus died so quickly, within the same day on which He was crucified, that they never broke His legs.
Regardless of the suffering and ugliness of this history, it was part of the prophecy about Jesus that His bones would be protected.
“The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” (Psalm 34: 19-20).
I pray that your bones will be protected during your lifespan. That even when you are a little boy or a little girl, that throughout your life, your bones will be protected and will not be broken.
Proverbs chapter three is one of the most beautiful sections of Scripture where a Father is speaking to his son, and encouraging him to grow in the ways of God. There are so many rich, deep, golden pieces of wisdom here that I wish I could elaborate on it all. For the sake of brevity and the topic, here is the section that speaks about your bones!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5-8)
