For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! (Psalm 139:13-17)

Divine Knowledge Before Birth

Childbirth is the foundation of humanity, beginning with Eve delivering Cain into the world as the first child to be born. It is hard to imagine how wonderful yet confusing the pregnancy of Eve was because she had no peers to explain what was happening. She could feel her son growing inside of her but could not imagine what was happening. It had to be amazing for Adam to watch his wife go through nine months of pregnancy, not knowing it would be around nine months. Little did Adam understand why Eve kept wanting pickles and ice cream.

Through the centuries, the evolution of pregnancy has sought to answer the question of what is happening in the womb. Manuscripts from ancient civilizations describe many ways people used to predict the sex of the child. With only a 50% chance of right or wrong, the predictions were often correct. The desire to know more about what happens during pregnancy led to technological advancements in the study of the womb. One of the promising inventions was the development of ultrasound, which was first used for clinical purposes in 1956. Advancements in modern technology have dramatically increased the ability to see the child in the womb and with a high prediction rate of what the sex of the child is. This has also led to surgical interventions that have saved many young children from death.

Man has only recently been able to peer inside the womb. God has known what is in the womb since Eve became pregnant with Cain. The poet David was not a medical doctor, but he understood something about the knowledge of the womb, which was far ahead of his time. Without looking into the womb, David knew that God formed the child. He understood what was in the womb of the mother was not a thing to be discarded for trivial reasons but an actual human being created in the image of God. As the body was formed inside the womb, David knew God watched each part skillfully wrought to the design established by the Lord.

For David, his praise of God’s creative power was an amazing story to consider. He knew God saw him while he was in his mother’s womb. It amazed him to know the knowledge of God even while he was developing in the womb. Living in a world without modern comforts and technology increased this awareness. Could anyone of that day imagine a machine that would allow man to peer into the womb? It was too fantastic to consider. David believed in the power of God to know how the child developed and formed. He knew the creative design showed the handiwork of the Lord.

Technology has taken much of the shine away from the discovery of birth. Many couples today decide to know the sex of the child before birth, which is a wonderment. But it is also sad not to experience the expressive joy of the moment the child is born and seeing the baby for the first time. God has watched the baby grow from the moment He implanted the seed of life into the womb. What David knew about childbirth was that it began by God’s power. Watching the womb grow and the baby move about in the womb was incredible. When the time of birth came, and the little child came forth with ten toes, ten fingers, and a fully developed body, David was amazed.

David’s conclusion was profound about the process of birth. He knew how precious the thoughts of God are as the Divine watched the baby grow. The joy of birth is the power of creation given to humanity to create a being that will never cease to exist by God’s power. All of the process of birth is a testimony to the glory of God. Pregnancy is about the life of a human being, made in the image of God and watched over as the child develops by the divine knowledge of their Creator. David could not number the ways to exclaim the wondrous marvel of birth. It was beyond his comprehension. May we never lose the wonderment and joy of birth.