So there we were sitting, (well, Alycia was more laying on the bench covered in ultrasound goo) mouths agape looking at the telly hanging down form the roof. On the screen was a picture roughly equivalent to the one above. (Unfortunately I do not have an electronic copy of ours.)

But it was moving.

Life. Not just any life, the life of our first child.

It’s one of those ‘life’ moments isn’t it? Those moments that when you’re in the middle of them, you just somehow know that you’ll never forget this moment for the rest of your life. Here’s 3 thoughts that went through my mind that I perhaps was not expecting.

1. God is real, he is here.

There’s is something about a living, developing baby in the womb that is irrepressibly, undeniably purposeful. Maybe ‘purposeful’ is a far too cold a word for what I’m trying to get at. As I saw the figure on the screen, its organs, muscles, bones and even eyes, I thought “something this amazing is here for a purpose.” “This person is not an accident.”

When he was hosting 6PR’s ‘nightline’ program, Graham Mabury once made the comment:

“no matter how many accidental parents there might be, there are no accidental children.”

This little person was and is being knit together in the womb with an accuracy and…..care that can only be explained by creation. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard the secular scientific view, but that same scientific method that seeks to account for all factors in forming a theory is completely ‘unscientific’ when it writes off the power of how we feel deep in our souls at the sight of life.

Some may say ‘I pick and choose’ what I believe. But in order to assign this event to anything else but a creating God, so are they.

At the sight of life, at the sight of life that you were involved in producing, you can only be in awe. You can only be amazed at who God is.

You can only realize that you feel this way because, you had a part in ‘creating’ this little life and the idea of creation matters more than anything to our very heart of hearts.

Because without creation, there’s no hope.

Seeing life in all it’s power, reminds us of creation, reminds us of the reality of God, reminds us that there’s hope.

2. You’re more blessed than you think.

Alycia and I know or at least know of many people who struggle to conceive. Some have conceived and miscarried. Some have conceived and had to endure the agony of a still-birth. Some have just suffered from complications to complex to mention here.

For some unknown reason, for us (at 22 weeks so far) it has been so far, so good. I cannot guarantee that things will continue that way, no matter how much I hope that they do. All I can do is entrust it to God. I try my best to entrust this little one to God with a heart of gratitude and I hope that I still do so long after they’re born.

Because I don’t know what tomorrow holds, all I know is that today I have something to celebrate that many people don’t.

All I know is that today I have something to celebrate that many people don’t.

I believe that we all have something to celebrate at any time that a lot of people don’t. Sometimes it may need a picture of a developing baby on a screen to remind us, but there it is.

Moreover, adopting an attitude of thankfulness stops us saying stupid and hurtful things. On the other hand, the more we take things for granted, the more damage we do to people. I cringe, cringe when I hear a well-meaning person say to a young couple something like: “when are you two having children?” what would they do in the awkward circumstance where the answer came back: “well so far it seems…never.”?

You’re more blessed than you think. Choose to get aware of blessing; and joy and wisdom get ‘thrown-in’ for free.

3. We are SO more delicate than we realize.

We are so delicate, we are but a breath away from eternity. As I saw the figure on the screen, I thought of about the billion things that need to go exactly ‘to plan’ at exactly the right time in order for this life to enter the world.

One thing, one thing goes wrong and everything is affected. Everything.

What starts in the womb, continues in life. What can go wrong has gone wrong. We’re broken and we cannot live a day without God’s help. Moreover, every moment we spend convincing ourselves that we can do anything without God’s help, is another step we take away from our ability to perceive him.

In Acts: 17:25, to the ‘religious Athenians’ Paul says: He (God) himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.

In other words, he’s both the answer to life and supply for life. He’s only the latter because he’s the former. He is only provider because he is first creator. This is why when Jesus wanted to paint a picture to people about God’s provision, his fatherhood, he get’s his pictures not from human society but from the natural world. Creation itself. (Matt 10:29)

I wonder often if this is why people in the two-thirds world often have such an easier time believing and understanding God as creator than the materialistic west. They know what is is to have to rely on his provision. They know how much their lives often hang by a thread, the creator’s unbreakable thread.

When our little one is born, as a dad I am burdened with the joyful responsibility of caring for this life because it is delicate. Because this life is ultimately a work of creation.

How much more does God care for us. How much have we let our otherwise ease of lifestyle convince us as to the opposite. But naked this baby shall be born and naked we will one day return to the earth; for we’re only dust.

That’s why in order to be the best dad I can be, I’m putting my trust in the one who created me.

I hope I succeed in some small way, and God’s grace covers my multitude of failures.

Bless ya:)