He Knows Our Days

A lot has happened in our family over the past couple of weeks!  My youngest sister gave birth to her first baby on Feb 6….her due date was in late April.  I have to admit, when I first heard that she was beginning to experience symptoms of preeclampsia, my first thought was “WHY??”  Having experienced preeclampsia and premature delivery twice, I knew what was in store for her.  My very next thought was, “God knows.” 

For the past week, I’ve been meditating on Psalm 139.

1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you

These verses are such a comfort!  We can rest completely in the knowledge that God knows everything about us and our circumstances.  Even in our loneliest, most distressing times, He is there!

The next verses are: 

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 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.

These verses remind us that we are uniquely made by God.  I’ve read them hundreds of times, but this week something just jumped out at me.  Verse 16 says, “…in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”  All the other times that I’ve read this verse, I think, “Yes, God knows my days.  He knows how long I’ll live.”  What I never thought about before was, “God knows my days….He knows when they’ll begin.” 

Premature birth is not a mistake.  God’s plan for my boys, my precious, tiny niece, and so many others that I know was that they be born early—that is, earlier than normal.  I don’t know why.  We may never know, but I do know this:  God is sovereign.  God is good.  God is my Father, and He wants to give me good gifts.  God’s grace is sufficient for every circumstance.  His way is perfect.  These are the promises that I cling to daily.  Some days the circumstances are more difficult than others, but God is the same all the time. 

I don’t know why God chose our family - of my parents’ four grandchildren, three of them have been born prematurely, and my niece’s only cousin on her dad’s side was born last July, also prematurely.

I do know that I can speak for all of us when I say that we want God to be glorified.