Can God's ultrasight see you?

My expectant daughter-in-law, Kelli, asked me to go with her to her ultrasound appointment this week. The baby is Kelli’s first and will make an appearance in July. Grandchild number four!

I knew what to expect. Ultrasound scoped out my daughter, now all grown up, so it wasn’t a complete surprise.

Until I saw inside the womb through the wonders of technology.
Until I saw the profile of baby Hadley’s smooth brow and perky little nose.
Until I saw her wiggle and kick and raise her arm over her head.
Was she praising her Creator?

I managed to keep the Grandma tears in check.

Until the technician turned up the sound for the heartbeat line rippling across the monitor.

“O my God,” my own heart beat out. (Can that not be a prayer?)

“O my God and Creator, worthy to be praised and glorified, Maker of heaven and earth and everything seen and unseen. Who can do what You do?”

The Psalmist said,

“The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

For You have formed my inward parts;

You have covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made …

My frame was not hidden from You …

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me,

when as yet there were none of them.”

(Psalm 139:12-16 NKJV).

If God can observe us and form us and care for us in our mother’s womb, is there any place on this earth or any situation in our lives where He cannot see us? Will He stop caring for us? Will He abandon us?

“Can a woman forget her nursing child …

Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you”

(Isaiah 49:15 NKJV).

No, never.
I’m so glad.

Unanswered prayer

Have you ever prayed for something so long that when it finally showed up you didn’t believe it?

Zechariah did. He was a Jewish priest in 1st-century Judea who prayed for years that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a child.

This man knew the miraculous stories of barren women giving birth to such giants of the faith as Isaac and Samuel. But they had lived decades earlier, not in the modern times of the Roman Empire, and so far, no tiny fingers had ever grasped his own.

Maybe he just quit praying. Or quit believing. Or maybe he figured that God’s answer was “no.”

And maybe that had something to do with his reaction when an angel stepped up and took his breath away with news that Elizabeth was going to have a baby boy.

I wonder what I would say to an angel like that – if I could get the words out. If I didn’t pass out. Hopefully I wouldn’t say what Zechariah said: “How can I be sure of this?” (Luke 1:18 NIV)

Hopefully the sudden and inexplicable appearance of an unusual figure telling me about something no one knew but God would, in itself, make a believer out of me.

But for whatever reason, Zechariah doubted, and because of that doubt he ended up speechless.

A few months later the same angel told a teenage girl that she would bear the Messiah for whom Israel waited. This girl Mary said what the more experienced and well-versed priest should have said: “OK. I am the Lord’s servant.”

Young Mary had a question, yes, but it wasn’t one of faith, it was a point of understanding. She knew how children were conceived and she knew she was still a virgin. And when the angel explained, Mary said, “OK.”

I want to be like Mary. I want to say, “OK, God,” when He sends an unbelievable event my way. I don’t want to recite every reasonable obstacle to my faith and say, “I don’t know about this, God.”

I want to say, “I’m your servant, Lord. Whatever you say.”

But the truth is, I’m more often like Zechariah – knowing God’s faithfulness and still wondering how He will do the impossible. And that’s why I’m encouraged by God’s choice of this man, the man whose first spoken words after months of silence were praise to a faithful God.

Yes, he knew the history of his people; yes, he had grown weary in his faith. But God had not given up on him, and He knew that Zechariah was the one to teach this child of “the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:77 NIV).

God gives all of us opportunities to say, “yes,” whether sooner or later. What will your choice be this Christmas season?

What will you say?