Life is miraculous

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If you really stop and think about it, life is a miracle. We begin as two cells join and multiply, and we become such complex, unique individuals.  All life is miraculous. From the amoeba to an insect to a whale or a rabbit to a redwood tree to water to the earth’s cycles, everything is amazing. It is mind boggling!

Yet we can take it all for granted. We might not even notice these miracles because they are all around us. In fact, each breath we take is a miracle! If things are functioning properly, we do not even do anything to make it all flow together.

The one miracle that many witness and marvel is the birth of a baby into the family.  What a precious event.  When you study those tiny toes and fingers, notice the curve of the baby’s nose, or the whispers of eyelashes or soft wisps of hair, you know without a doubt, in your arms you hold a wonderful miracle.

Some folks get all mixed up with terms like embryo and fetus and question when life begins.  I firmly believe that life begins at conception. I have no doubt.

I knew before I heard the heartbeat, which begins by the 21^st day.  As each of my babies kicked me, and I watched my abdomen ripple, I did not question whether each was a person. I knew they were individuals with feelings, personalities.

I have never heard anyone talk about her baby as “the embryo has brain waves now” or “the fetus is an inch long”. I suppose there are people who do.  I just cut to the facts:  the life is a baby human being.

Did you know that by the 35^th day after conception, the baby’s five fingers can be discerned in the hand and that by the 40^th day, brain waves can be detected and recorded? At six weeks, the liver is producing blood cells and the brain is beginning to control movement of muscles and organs.  By now, mom knows she is pregnant.  By the seventh week, there is spontaneous movement. By the eighth week, he is a little more than an inch long and everything is now present that is in a fully developed adult. The stomach produces digestive juices, and the kidneys have begun to function. The baby responds to touch now, although Mom will not feel movement until the fourth or fifth month.

By the ninth week, fingerprints are evident in the skin, and he will curve his fingers around an object placed in the palm of his hand. Baby urinates by the 11^th week and sleeps, awakens, and exercises energetically by the 12^th.

There is evidence that by the fourth month, the baby can hear quite a bit. By the seventh month, he can recognize Mom’s voice.

We need to respect and protect life as it begins.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13-14.)

Our elderly and disabled are special and deserve our care, protection and respect also. We all begin the same, and if we live long enough, we will become elderly and dependent again. Each person is unique. God fearfully and wonderfully creates each person.

Yes, life is a miracle. Psalm 139 goes on to say “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. God even knows the number of hairs on your head (Matthew 10:30).

If God so lovingly creates us and knows us so well, loves us so much, shouldn’t we also make an effort to love and respect each other at all stages in life?

You are a miracle. I am a miracle. Everywhere I look, I see miracles. Do you?