“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 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.” Psalm 139:13-16
There is nothing like seeing a child come into the world. An unspeakable miracle. A holy moment. It is the birth of a new eternal being, made by the hand of, and in the image of the Almighty God. The pinnacle of God’s creation. The creatures for whom God’s son, in his marvelous grace, died.
On December 17th, I witnessed my son come into the world. Ezra Algonquin Hunt. 6lbs 11oz of brand new flesh and blood. A cry sounded from his little body as his lungs worked for the first time. His eyes opened to see the bright new world around him. A creature that was a few months earlier only 2 simple cells, was now a living, breathing human child. 5 trillion cells intricately woven by the Master Creator. It is a mystery, beyond any of our science and our own human understanding. After seeing this mystery unfold over the last 9 months with my own eyes, I can say in a new and awe-filled way with the psalmist that I praise Him for we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made‘.
You may be dismissing these words as melodramatic (and sleep-deprived) ramblings from a first-time father. But I would urge you to consider the miracle of life. How is it possible that an entirely new human person, the most complex organism known to science, is formed cell-by-cell inside of a mother’s womb? How does a tiny heart know to beat? How do new eyes know to see? And you were once that same child forming cell by cell in your mother’s womb.
I recently watched this TedTalk by Alexander Tsiaras, the Chief of Scientific Visualization at Yale University. In this short video he discusses ‘Conception to Birth’ a visual presentation of the development of a fetus. As he explored for the first time the staggering data about the development of a fetus, he comes to the conclusion, as a mathematician, that the complexity is beyond human comprehension. “It’s mystery. It’s magic. It’s divinity.” I’d encourage you to take a few minutes and watch it, and marvel at how we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made‘.
