December 8

“Adam lay with his wife Eve, 
and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.”
Genesis 4:1
 
A miracle is hiding inside this short verse. Yesterday we contemplated the awe-inspiring complexity of a single-celled organism and its factory-like capacity to duplicate itself. Today I’d like to spend a few moments considering the creation of a unique human being. We are obviously more than a single-cell organism. We are a multi-cell, multi-organ, complex creation made in the image of God and enlivened with the breath of life. With the exception of Adam and Eve, we all began as a single cell when a part of our mother and father came together to make that first cell that was you or me.

During the first day, that one cell became two. On day 2, those two cells became four. On day 3, those four cells worked their way to becoming twelve, now combined as a single entity, rather than separate cells. On day 4, the cell count is up to 32. By day 7, those continually dividing cells start to specialize. Pause and think about this for a moment. This process begins with simple duplication. How does it know to start specializing? What triggers the change from duplication to specialization, from a group of identical cells to cells that will become skin, internal organs, and muscle? By Day 21, the basis for the spine and brain are taking shape. On Day 22, your heart began to beat, and it’s been beating ever since. By week 12, all of the fundamental parts that make you you were essentially complete in your mother’s womb.8 From that point forward, you matured until you were born. You are a miracle.

The birth of every child is a miracle. Every day new births are celebrated all around the world. There are currently, living on this planet, over 8 billion birth stories; 8 billion persons of inestimable value. I know this to be true because of the birth we celebrate in December. God, through the miracle of conception and birth, became a man to demonstrate the value of every other person born into this world. He, who has no beginning and no end, who has all power, set it aside (the Bible says “emptied himself” of this glory9) and became one of us. Through the activity of the Holy Spirit, a virgin became pregnant. The pregnancy, starting with the single-cell divided and specialized until a baby was born. The baby Jesus. God submitted Himself to the natural process of development and birth to demonstrate the lengths He is willing to go to for you and for me. God made a promise to Adam and Eve that one of their offspring would crush the head of Satan, and that promise was fulfilled when God came to us as Jesus. Let the miracle of conception and birth and a prophecy and promise fulfilled be the filter through which you worship today. Not just the corporate worship at church, but throughout your day. Look at your hands and what they can do with a computer keyboard, a musical instrument, a tool, or a touch. Consider your own children — their birth and development. Marvel at what God has done and at what He was willing to do by becoming a man.

Jay W. Hill