Premature birth
Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. (Ecclesiastes 11:5 NLT)
Viability is determined for the fetus at a point in time when the baby can "exist" in an environment outside of the womb. Premature birth may actually "harm" the tiny infant because it cannot fully support life outside of the womb - intensive intervention must be performed repeatedly to sustain the life of a 24 week fetus. It may be possible for the tiny infant to survive, but the effort which must be put forth to see that life sustained outside of the womb when born too early is astronomical. There are times in our own walk with Christ when we try to birth something way too early, resulting in a whole lot of extra work, or "re-visiting" of the subject matter time and time again in order to sustain that thing which was birthed way too early!
When we "mess with" God's timing or his purposes in our lives, we often can see issues associated with "prematurity". That portion of our character God was developing within us may just not come to full growth, requiring quite a bit more work than may have been required if we'd have just allowed him the time or the right circumstances to see it developed fully. It is not uncommon for us to rush God - thinking we have a full impression of what he wants for us. I know that every time I have rushed his plans, I have experienced way too many problems to count. It isn't that he isn't there with me - it is that I am not ready for what I have tried to "birth" ahead of schedule!
As the baby develops within the mother's womb, the mother can become very curious about what is actually occurring. There are "signs" that something is afoot inside there, but do we know exactly what it is? Nope! We can guess - based on the things we are experiencing - but we don't fully know if 10 toes, 10 fingers, 2 ears, and a perfect little button nose are as they should be. We don't know that until the time of birth. While some will argue we can know this with the use of ultrasound, I would have to remind us that even the most clear picture in an ultrasound still pales in comparison to the "true picture" of that which we will hold in our arms later.
While development is taking place, we wait - often quite impatiently. This where the rub comes in - we don't like to wait. We rush God's handiwork so many times in our lives simply because we don't "know" what he is doing. The truth is that we don't trust him to be doing the right stuff! We want to "see" because we don't often trust what we cannot see or fully understand. I don't "see" gravity, but I see the results of it. I don't "see" the air I breathe, but I know it must contain sufficient oxygen to sustain my life because I am still pink and upright! There are things we all come to "trust" without really thinking too much about them - so why do we want to rush God into "showing us" what we cannot see he is doing rather than allowing him the time to be about his perfect work?
I think most of us would agree - it is hard to trust what we cannot see, but there are definite struggles with seeing something way ahead of God's perfect timing! Let's not rush God's hand or challenge his timing. We may not fully "see" what he is up to within us, but we can trust he is creating what will be good and right. That is just what he does. Just sayin!
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