I AM...BUT I ALMOST WASN'T

You're here.  But what if you weren't?

There almost wasn't a "Me." 

Years ago my mom was pregnant with another child, but miscarried.  And if not for the loss that my mom would never have voluntarily chosen, she wouldn't have gotten pregnant with me.  I was conceived in the time when she still would have been carrying her other child.

So God began the task of knitting me together in the depths.  But then at my birth, the cord was wrapped dangerously around my neck three times, threatening both my mom and me.  And yet God's hand was on us, sustaining our lives.


I think of how my children almost weren't.  My daughter's story is just like mine--she came to us shortly after the miscarriage of my second son.  If not for the loss I know I wouldn't have ever chosen at the time, my sweet Liley wouldn't be here. But that wasn't all; I was also reminded recently that an unexpected and tragic loss made a way for my husband--and therefore our children--to be. 


I can't help thinking that there have been a few different things just in the last 2 generations alone that could have made things go very differently.  But God made a way for us--for all four of us--to exist. Wow.


And He's been doing this all along.  I think of the protections and provisions God made for His Son Jesus to be born of the house and line of David.  First, the stature-challenged David went toe to toe with the massive Goliath--and God made a way for David's victory (and therefore the preservation of David's life)! But the threats to David's life didn't stop there.  Later on, King Saul felt threatened by this young man after God's own heart, and "kept a jealous eye on David" (1 Samuel 18:9).  King Saul made plans to kill David, but God used Jonathan--Saul's own son--to protect David and preserve his life.  And the ramifications of this were huge: Generations later, the Messiah was born of the line of David. 

So what's YOUR story?  Maybe it was the grandparents that almost didn't marry, the life-threatening situation, or a loss that paved the way for your presence.  Consider that God SO wanted you to be here that He made a way for it to be so--preserving and protecting  the generations that would one day produce YOU!  Rick Warren wrote about the powerful notion that God knew exactly which two people had the DNA that would make YOU--and He joined them together so that you could be.  Indescribable glory!  I'm blown away even to think of how God joined this California girl with a Boston boy, and that we have two Georgia peaches of our own.  Amazing. :)


The ordering of steps.  The preservation of life.  It's all one tremendous miracle!  If you're reading this, know that God made a way for you.  I know.  Because I almost wasn't.  

And yet here I am.

Thank You for making a way for us, Father.  Thank You for carving out our place in the midst of the generations.  Preserve our children's lives and join them with the ones You see fit to be joined to them, that the generations may continue as You will.  We love You for being a great and omniscient God.  It is AWESOME to know You have planted us and established us to display Your splendor (Isaiah 61).