God is ever forming life

Whether it is the earth and heavens, human life, transformation of the human spirit, or preparation for eternity at earthly life’s end, God is always forming new life! 

Photos of galaxies always startle me. That’s not only because they are beautiful and vast, but because they appear so similar to the formation of a child in the womb. Like me, perhaps you have wondered, “What is God forming out there in space?” “What will it be when He finishes?”

I grew up in a large family. We always sat in one particular pew in the church close to the front. As children we grew restless when sermons were long. My dad entertained us by drawing things on a small pad of paper. We watched every move of the pen breathlessly waiting to see what the finished figure would be. I smile now when I think of those drawings of horses, and cars, and stick people. They were exciting because I loved my Dad, the artist. In a similar way, my love relationship with God contributes to my fascination with what God is forming in nature, in the womb, in me, at the end of life on this earth.

God created the earth from a dark, formless, nothingness (Genesis 1:2-9). The “Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep” before he “called forth light” and separated the waters from the “expanse” of the sky. Then “His hands formed the dry land” (Psalm 95:5 & 2 Peter 3:5). Swirling, shimmering, active, and audible, God’s Spirit formed something incredible as a home for humankind. Now on Facebook and Instagram we humans who inhabit this planet, share the awesome glory of His creation with our global community through pictures posted on social media.

God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and Eve from a rib of Adam. Shaping, molding, with tender care forming a human being, like him, “in his image,” not “begotten”, but created, formed with a spirit and made alive by God’s own breath, and greatly loved (Genesis 2:7; Zechariah 12:1; ITimothy 2:13).

Every child after Adam and Eve, comes into the world through biological processes God set in motion when he formed the first human couple, but we err if we believe our Creator is any less intimately involved in forming each child in the womb. Psalm 139:13-16 shows the intimacy of God’s involvement in forming both body and spirit in the womb.

 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Jeremiah 1:5 indicates that God’s formation in the womb goes beyond what can be observed even with today’s incredible ultrasound technology. God has plans and is calling the child who is still in the womb of his mother. God called Jeremiah to be a prophet before he was born. In the context of the passage God communicates this fact to Jeremiah as a means of instilling confidence that God would enable and empower him to be the prophet God intended. God purposes to complete Jeremiah’s formation begun years before in the womb of his mother.

The formation of our physical bodies is not the sole arena of God’s creative activity in us, but serves as a visible illustration of what he wills to create and form in our spirits through Jesus Christ. Jesus was in the form of God eons before his appearance on earth (Philippians 2:6-7,) but “made himself nothing” to take on the “likeness of men.” Just in case you are feeling important and in control your life, consider the word “nothing” which Paul uses here to describe our “human form” compared to Jesus’ “form of God.”

That’s really the whole point! We are nothing, but God has no intention of leaving us in that dark and formless state. He is actively forming life in the womb. He is hovering over our human spirit shaping us into something amazing. Jesus made himself like us—human—precisely so that he could transform us to be like him. It’s not something we can do for ourselves. It is the work of God in us (I Thessalonians 5:22-24), cleaning us up, shimmering, hovering, actively finishing what he began. The work of God in us is complete, including not only the transformation of our human body (Philippians 3:21) but also the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). God is forming something radiant in our spirit that we cannot yet imagine (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Everything God forms results in life. That is reason enough for me to do everything within my power to protect human life at both edges: in the womb and at the end of life. I want to see what it is that God is forming. I know it will be amazing!