TinyTabitha: November 2012

On Monday a miracle happened. My sister had a healthy baby boy! We are all delighted and I can't wait to meet him soon! I know it happens all the time - people have healthy babies. But it doesn't take away from the fact that it remains a miraculous event. From conception, to birth. Wow. How amazing. Have you ever stopped to think about the miracle of life? Agnostics try to explain it by science. But science alone cannot explain how a sperm and an egg suddenly become a heartbeat. Did you know that at 6 weeks in the womb, a baby already has visible eyes, hands and a heartbeat? A little human being, with its own independently functioning organs, DNA, blood type and personality. People argue that its not a human being because its still dependent on the mother. Two independent heartbeats? Comeon... Just because someone is on life support or gets a dialysis doesn't make them any less of a human being.

A little logic goes a long way. Science should not take away our ability to think clearly and logically. Science can simply explain everything that was created by God in the first place. To disprove God, the source of life, you have to let go of all logical reasoning. Seeing a created being with intricately designed functions and features but denying a Creator? Unfortunately, that's what defines the norm of 'science' accepted by schools and governments today. We don't assume that a building just happened randomly, and when we buy clothes we automatically know that there was a designer and a factory somewhere that manufactured it. Yet when it comes to giving glory to God for what He has done, people will even give up their logic (while being labelled intelligent by the world) to try and deny Him so that they can continue worshiping themselves. Crazy stuff.

Yes, I do wish that this baby could've been mine! I can't help but think that if my last pregnancy worked out, my baby would've arrived in the next 3 weeks. But life belongs to God. He gives it and He has the right to take it. ONLY He has the right to take it. And that's fine with me. I don't want to be like God and control life and death. I don't have the wisdom and knowledge of things to come like He does. I don't love like He does - in my humanity I find it hard to make even one decision not based on my own selfishness!

It might be hard, but when are we going to learn to trust God? To REALLY trust Him? On this road I've learned to trust Him a lot but I'm still not there. I still doubt and wish sometimes. But I am convinced that there is a purpose for everything that is put on our path. We must learn to give thanks in ALL circumstances. Instead of always questioning, doubting God, wishing we were God and acting like there is no God, we must learn to be content in our various situations, and just LIVE LIFE, to the glory of God. Focusing on ourselves always leads to self-pity and even more selfishness. Focusing on others and Jesus, who is the only true Hope, will help us to not worry so much about what we have now but about our treasures in heaven. Then life becomes meaningful. Not in a self-fulfilling kind of way (there we go with the selfishness again!), but in a way that truly glorifies God.

1 Peter 1:3-9
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Can we glorify God without denying ourselves? The harsh truth, according to Jesus, is NO. In the parable of the rich young ruler (Matt 19/Mark 10) the man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Did Jesus say: 'Just say a prayer and let me come into your heart?' NO!!! To enter through the narrow door takes a whole lot of self denying. Jesus challenges him to give up the things that he's put his trust in. The things he idolised. The things that gave him his identity. The things he coudn't live without. The things that were more important to him than Jesus. Even though he kept all the commands, he forgot about the first one - 'You shall have no other gods before me'. So Jesus cuts right to the heart of the issue and tells him to go sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. From what we know it doesn't seem like he was willing to do that, so inevitably, he wasn't saved. (By the way, by today's standards, Jesus would be a very unsuccessful evangelist!)
Then Jesus tells the disciples (Matt 19:29):
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - if Jesus is not enough for you, nothing will be. No baby, no husband, no job, no house, no car, no lifestyle, no body shape and no amount of money will ever be good enough. I thank God for the miracle of a new life in our family, but with or without miracles, I trust and hope in Him, my Saviour, alone, and not in what He can give us.

I pray therefore, before praying for a baby, that we will become self-denying, God glorifying people, constantly searching our own hearts for idols, and that we will teach our children the same Truth! Only then can we look forward to eternal life. The life, and life in abundance, the future and the hope that John 10:10 and Jer 29:11 talks about! And this is what I pray for little Divan Roberts as well. The life and life in abundance, the future and the hope that only Jesus gives to those that are willing to deny themselves, follow Him and persevere till the end!

Here are some... ok, a lot of photos from a very proud aunty...