When you emerge
from your nine-month hiding place, you will already be saturated in love. Completely welcome, entirely accepted,
hopefully expected, and dearly loved.
Not only by myself, your Daddy, and our extended family, but by Jesus.
My mom, your
Grandmama, said something beautiful the other day. The love of God is hard for many people to
grasp. We can spend our entire life
trying to comprehend, accept, and give away, His love. Unfortunately, we may also spend much of life
trying to earn, barter, deny, or prove His love. If we believe in Him, we frequently get stuck
in the “earn” His love camp. Your Grandmama
compared God’s love for each person, to the love I have for you already.
You have done
nothing to earn my love except exist.
Just the fact that you are alive, have been created, has brought you
incredible love. And it is just so with
God. We need do nothing, in fact, can do
nothing, to earn His love. He created
us. We exist. And by the mere fact of our existence, we are
dearly and deeply loved as His children.
I pray His love
will saturate your awareness from an early age.
That you won’t try to earn it, barter for it, deny it, or prove it. That His acceptance of you, desire for you,
and passionate abandoned love for you will capture your heart.
This poem by Rita
Ramsey says it beautifully.
We've all been waiting for you.
For you.
Your arrival has been marked, has been recorded
on earth,
in the universe,
in the galaxies,
in all of space,
in all of time.
You come with a birthright, written in love and sung
through all Creation in words which promise
that no matter where you're at,
you're home
that no matter who you're with,
you're welcome
that no matter who you are,
you're loved.
Welcome.
From now through
birth, you will put on about three ounces per week. This weight will be primarily made up of
muscle, bone mass, and organ size. You
now weigh a bit over one pound, and are around twelve inches long! I chose this zucchini and also this kabocha
squash to represent your size this week.
When I held the
zucchini in my hand, I kept picturing the tiny grain of rice in my palm that
represented your size when we first found out about you. It is mind-boggling to think you have grown so
much bigger, so quickly.
Shockingly, you are now considered viable outside the
womb.But don’t make any big plans yet,
because we fully intend for you to remain happily in your swimming hole for
another four months!
Your lungs are developing capabilities for
breathing.Key to that ability is the
production of surfactant, a fatty substance which helps the air sacs inside
your lungs inflate easily, and also be prevented from collapsing.
On top of your head may be growing, not just fuzzy lanugo
hair, but REAL hair.Some babies are
born bald, and others are born with a full head of hair.We will see how yours grows!
Your eyelids can be clearly distinguished, and creases
are visible on your palms.Your taste
buds are forming, and you might actually grimace if I eat something bitter or
sour!
All the internal and external parts of your hearing are
complete.Just this past week, I have
noticed you start bumping around when I blow dry my hair in the morning.I’m guessing you can hear that loud noise!
Scripture says many beautiful things about the love of
God, but here are a few that I am praying over you this week.
“[I AM] Yahweh! The LORD!
The God of compassion
and mercy!
I am slow to anger and filled with
unfailing love and faithfulness.”
(Exodus 34:6)
“Praise the LORD your God, who delights in you.”
(1 Kings 10:9)
“O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all
of heaven and earth.
You keep your covenant and show unfailing love
to all who walk before You in wholehearted devotion.”
(2 Chronicles 6:14)
“But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful,
slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You will not abandon us.”
(Nehemiah 9:17)
“For the LORD your God is living among you.
He is a mighty
Savior.
He will take delight in you with
gladness.
With His love, he
will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over
you with joyful songs.”
(Zephaniah 3:17)
“How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter in the
shadow of your wings.”
(Psalm 36:7)
“May he reign under God’s protection forever.
May Your unfailing
love and faithfulness watch over him.”
(Psalm 61:7)
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us
from God’s love.
Neither death
nor life,
neither angels
nor demons,
neither our
fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—
not even the
powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—\
indeed, nothing
in all creation will
Ever
be able to
separate us from the love of God
that is revealed
in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:38-39)
“For God loved YOU so much that He gave His one and only
Son,
so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but
have eternal life.”