Episode 29: Stick Together Marriages Through Thick and Thin

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, we have the most special podcast today. I'm so excited because I have my daughter, Pearl, with me. I can't believe I have actually got her on my podcast. I mean, she is so busy with Trim Healthy Mama. I'm sure most of you already know Serene and Pearl who are Trim Healthy Mama. I'm sure you must have their cookbooks, and if you don't, well, you can make sure to get them because they will transform your life.

You can go to their website, www.trimhealthymama.com and listen to their podcasts. I guess loads of you already listen to Pearl and Serene's podcasts. They have about 200,000 (actually 300,000) people listening to their podcasts. If you aren't already doing it, you can join the thousands and you'll be so blessed. Well, Pearly, it's so great to have you here today.

Pearl: It's fun to be here, Mom. I'm so excited that you're doing this podcast so that you don't have to travel as much. We like you home here on the hilltop.

Nancy: Oh, thank you. Yes, this is where we all live, and Pearl lives just a couple hundred yards down the road. To catch you up with Pearlie's family, they have Meadow, who is married; that's her oldest daughter. Such a beautiful daughter and married to the most gorgeous guy, Kendall. They have this gorgeous little boy, Warren, who's about 8 months now. Pearl has transitioned to a whole another realm of grandmothering.

Pearl: I know, but the word itself still freaks me out. I call myself “Prissy.”

Nancy: Prissy, because her middle name is Priscilla.

Pearl: The whole grandmother thing I still feel way to young, cool, and hip for. But in actual fact, I am a grandmother, and I love it!

Nancy: Pearl is the most doting grandmother. She and her husband, Charlie, I love watching them with Warren. They are just about like the parents. I think you would take him over if you could.

Pearl: Oh, we would! I didn't know, Mom, I know that you love being a grandmother, but I think it's all a big secret. Like this secret code of the grandparent people, and they don't tell anyone, and you don't realize how great it is until you become a grandmother or grandfather. It's like this hidden secret that is the best time of your life.

Nancy: Yes, it is. I am blessed now to have 47 grandchildren. Every single one of them are so amazing. I have to admit, it's like your first child, that first grandbaby. It's not that you love any of your continuing ones any less; you love them just as much with all your heart. But the wonder, it's the wonder of it, like the wonder of your first born. It's the wonder of your first grandbaby.

Pearl: I remember having my babies, and it was incredible, but you're in the trenches. You're doing it, you're keeping them alive, you're feeding them. I remember the wonder of it and the love. But now, with Warren, our first grandchild, everything he does—there is no other baby in the world that can do it like him. Don't even tell me that there could be. Even for him to just blink his eyes, “What? Look at the way he blinks his eyes, oh my goodness! It's better than any other baby.”

Nancy: Yes, so maybe some of you have not got to this stage yet, but just think of what's ahead. This is the wonderful way God has planned our lives. It's so wonderful. He's planned seasons. They become more wonderful with time.

Pearl: They really do. I didn't know, when I was a younger woman (I don't think of myself as really old, but I'm approaching 50).

Nancy: Oh, and you don't look it. She looks about 25!

Pearl: No, I don't, but I used to think, “I'm going to get older and be a grandmother.” There was no joy about being a grandmother or that stage, but honestly, I can say that this stage in my life, it does get better, Mom. When you plant and pour the water on your family and nurture it, the pay-off is so rewarding. I cannot believe this season of my life.

Nancy: I think we could encourage you young moms that are listening. Don't despise the day of small things. These times where you are hidden away in your homes, and it's just diapers and dishes and sometimes feels like drudgery. This is the sowing of glorious seeds into so much that's ahead. As your children grow and they get into all the things that they are interested in, your life as a mother never becomes smaller. It becomes wider and wider and wider.

Pearl: It does. It becomes bigger, and I like the way you said, “the glory.” I feel like, as your children grow and they have children of their own, it feels like glory. Giving God all the glory, but I feel like I'm receiving some of it. Like you said, when you're there, and you have little ones, and you have sleepless nights, and you're in the trenches, it's hard, but there's so much joy in it. You sow, and you reap. And then the Bible says your children will grow and call you blessed. Isn't that amazing when that happens?

(Serene calls)

Nancy: She’s just wanting to borrow the car to go grocery shopping.

Pearl: That's funny because before I came over here, we were recording our podcast.

Nancy: Radio program.

Pearl: Yeah, we do a little of both sometimes.

Nancy: Anyway, it's quite amazing. It was actually Sam and Serene who bought this car for us, and the amazing thing is though, they haven't even got a car big enough for themselves, so they have to borrow this car. Really, they might as well just have it because they use it every day.

Anyway, Pearly, not only have you got Warren, but you're having another grandbaby.

Pearl: Yes, one on the way. My son, Bowen and his wife, Kahoru, due in February, so that's exciting.* But I'm one of those obnoxious grandmothers though that can't stop talking about it. If you have other subjects, you may as well bring them in because I could just go on about how this baby is going to be the best too.

Nancy: Well, you must have got it from Granddad. That's my father. My father, all his life, with his children, and then, when his grandchildren came along, they were added to his boasting list. When people used to come (we had the most hospitable home growing up). always visitors, but those poor visitors. Every visitor that came, he would start talking about his children, and all the things they could do. Then, when we began having children, they were his grandchildren, then he added them to the boasting list. He would be telling everybody about these amazing grandchildren. These people were just having to sit there and sit there and listen to this long boast, and the more grandchildren he had, the longer the boasting list went on!

Pearl: I know, I think it is genetic, Mom, because I remember Grandad sitting there and staring at me in awe when I would play a little guitar, maybe I was writing a little song.

Nancy: He thought you were the greatest guitarist in the world,

Pearl: And I wasn't, but he would stare at me like, “How could this human be more fantastic?” Now, I find myself doing that with my grandchild.

Nancy: When you and Serene would sing, he'd be opening his mouth with the words.

Pearl: It's a genetic thing.

Nancy: Yes, so she does have three other children who are not yet married and that's Rocky, Noble and Autumn. Autumn is the youngest, and she just had her fourteenth birthday. She is growing up the most beautiful girl. They are so blessed with their lovely family.

We are so blessed here on the hilltop, with all the cousins. Everyone lives their own life, but we are pretty close, so they can all get together at a moment’s notice. I notice when Autumn came back, she'd been away for a weekend, and when she came back, it was her birthday, but she just didn't arrive home. She came back, and there were all the girls and the cousins. They had a surprise birthday waiting for her. They made it so wonderful for her. Anyway, Pearly, I think you'll be married, soon 25 years, won't you?

Pearl: Yes, 25 years in March.

Nancy: I can't even believe that.

Pearl: I can't believe I'm saying that, but we are talking here, Mom, and oh, it's so great, and we are going on and on, and everyone's thinking, “Oh, they live a perfect life. They've never had a day of trouble.”

When I look at the 25 years of marriage and we're talking about families and children growing up and having grandchildren and the glory of it all, life is not all perfect. We don't just sit up here in a bubble on the hilltop. We count our joys though. We celebrate them. I look back at my 25 years of marriage, and I think, “That wasn't all easy.” I think, you invest, and it pays off, but there were some days that were brutally hard, so I could talk about those days. But 25 years of marriage is the most precious thing in my life.

Nancy: I can say, now, looking at you, and I think anybody looking would say, “Oh, you have such a beautiful marriage.” But as you say, it just didn't happen. Tell us some of the things you felt make it what it is today.

Pearl: Yes, you treasure marriage, and I thank God that my marriage is so beautiful. I'm amazed, but it certainly did not happen that way on its own.

Nancy: No, nothing happens on its own. It's like this affirmation that I constantly say. “Things don't just happen, you have to make them happen.”

Pearl: Yes, and I think my marriage could have fallen apart, like anybody’s. I think anyone can get married, and they're in love and everyone feels the love, or you wouldn't get married. But every marriage could fall apart because life is going to hit. That's when you dig deep.

Nancy: I remember a dear friend of mine saying to me years and years ago, and I've never forgotten it. She said, “Often,” and it happens in every marriage, “there are times when the tide goes out. And when the tide goes out, you see all the ugly things on the beach. It's not a pretty sight when the tide goes out. There's tin cans and there's this and that and there's all the ugly stuff.” But she said, “There is a law of God, the tide always comes in again.”

She was using that analogy about marriage. I think it is a wonderful analogy. Yes, there can be times when the tide goes out and things look ugly, and perhaps we can talk a little bit about how to get through those times. But dear precious ladies, perhaps you are going through a difficult time in your own marriage. Maybe you feel the tide is out and all you can see is ugliness. But there's a law, an eternal law, that the tide always comes in again. If we will apply God's principles, God can do wonderful things. He brings that tide in again and covers all the ugliness, covers it all.

Pearl: I feel like if you're looking at it, and it looks undone, and it looks like everything you've worked for is a mess, your investing in that can be better than you can ever conceive. Because God is the God of miracles. I look at my marriage, and I think that right there is a pure miracle. Someone leaping out of a wheelchair miracle. I got married and the love and the hormones and everything, and we did life and we had babies, five babies in ten years, so it was just getting through.

We went through rough times of no money and no car and all of that. Then there were the times when it was like, “I don't even know who you are anymore. Are you that person that I married?  And just looking at that person, what do we have? What am I holding onto here?” Then I realize that I'm holding on to the marriage itself. And that is what I held onto.

Nancy: You had to choose what you were going to do.

Pearl: Absolutely, it's a choice every day. He probably had to look at me and say the same thing. I had to realize that it's a choice what am I seeing in that person. Back when sometimes were hard, I could list everything about my husband that I thought was wrong, all the things he was doing wrong. Why isn't he calling me Honey? Why isn't he saying all the nice things to me anymore? Why is he reserved? Why is he in a cave? Why does he look angry? Why is he mad?

Or I could say, my husband goes out to work every day, and he comes home and look at him with the children, and he still loves me. Yes, he's going through a hard time, but he fills my car with gas and look at who he is, and he stayed at that job that he hates for 12 years just for me.

I could see all the bad or I could see all the good. When you hold onto that good, even more good comes down the rack. It gets better and better, and that doesn't mean there won't be rough times because I think in every marriage (I don't care how perfect you start off, I don't care if you're two little homeschooled children, and you're both virgins, and it's all perfect. I don't care), you’re gonna see rough times too, and that's when you dig in. That's when you look at life and say, “Is this worth holding onto? Yes.

Nancy: Absolutely. I'm thinking of some dear friends of mine just as you're talking. One of them was my bridesmaid. They got married, and they had a tough time of it. I think because they were believers, they were strong believers in the Word, and they didn't believe in divorce. If they could have, they would have divorced. They weren't compatible. It was a mess. But they stuck together. They stuck it out. Now they've been married as long as we've been married, and they have the most beautiful marriage today. They are just a sweet lovely couple who I don't think could do without one another for one day. They grew eventually because they stuck there. They grew together. When we get back to see them, because they live in a different country than us because we moved to the states, it's a delight to be with them. They're precious, lovely, and enjoying one another.

Pearl: I'm sure there were times when you would have looked at them, “How on earth did they make this work?”

Nancy: I know, but they did.

Pearl: It's not impossible.

Nancy: There's something about sticking together, sticking to your covenant. Ladies, it seems as though today, I'm seeing that theme of what we are saying is to stick at it. When you're in motherhood, you're with your little ones, and it's not easy, and they are all around you, and you think, when will I be finished with this? No, don't think like that. Look for the joy that is set before you because there is a joy that is set before you. These children grow, and they come into the fruit of all that you've been sowing. It is true, you reap what you sow, and you will be blessed in motherhood.

It's the same as a wife, and as Pearly has been saying, you can go through these rough patches. It's not easy, as you don't think you even like this person you're married to. But you stick with them, and you sow seeds of love and you sow seeds of encouragement and you sow seeds of stickability, and you sow seeds of sweetness. You keep sowing all the good seeds, and you begin to reap.

My husband and I have now been married 55 and a half years. That's a pretty long time. Oh, I have to say, we've always had a lovely marriage, but I can't even compare what it is today to what it was. It was lovely, but I don't have a lovely marriage now, I have an amazing marriage. It gets better. Everything gets better as you walk with God.

Pearl: Sometimes it takes the tough times to get better because if it was just lovely and easy every day, there wouldn't be that beauty that comes from trial through fire. Sometimes it refines you and makes everything more precious when you go through really rough times. I think that one thing that has helped me, to this day, I think I realized this about ten years into my marriage, I was no longer talking to my husband like I was dating him or courting, if you want to use the correct words. We knew each other so well, we were just trying to get through. It was like, “Ok, did you pick that up at the store? You didn't? I asked you to. C'mon honey, why didn't you do that? You knew I needed that.” I mean, just the tone, right?

Then one day I got this paradigm in my head, “I no longer talk to him like when I was dating or look at him the way I did when I was courting or use the same tone. I have a “I know you” tone and I can speak however I want now.” I trained myself to go back. Sometimes I slip up now but mostly how I talk to my husband now is the same way I did when we were dating. I tell you it has been such a precious thing in my marriage to keep that beautifulness going, to keep the freshness, to keep the specialness, that we are in love and this is special.

Nancy: Yes, and it is what you said, training yourself to do that.

Pearl: Oh, it's absolutely training. It's so much easier to throw a little fit or do a little silent treatment or just speak whatever you want than to say, “Hold on, I'm not going to do that. What's going to be the best reaction here? Hey, couldn't I smile at my husband here, or why couldn't I touch him now?” It’s easier to do all that flesh stuff, and you feel it and just want to let it out rather than train. But that's not building my marriage. It’s actually tearing it down. It's just tearing it down.

Nancy: Yes, that reminds me of Titus 2 where it says the older women are to teach the younger women and some translations say, “to train them.” That's interesting, but often, it's training yourself.

Pearl: Right.

Nancy: We do have to train, but it's lovely in that passage in Titus 2 where it tells the older women to teach the younger women to love their husbands. It's an interesting word that is used there. It's the word philandros. Of course, that's one of the phileo words which means “friendship love.” It's not talking about agape love, the love of God, which is important. We need that in our marriage because in these times when perhaps the tides go out, that's when you have to push into the agape love of God. You've got none left of your own; it's gone out the door, but you still have love. You have God's love, shed abroad in you by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you (Romans 5:5). You have to press into that love. Love with God's love, even if you haven't got any of your own love. You need that agape love in your marriage.

You need the eros love in your marriage which is sexual love.

The love that it's talking about there is a friendship love, a touchy love, a love where we are showing physically that we love our husband, like touching him, kissing him, rubbing him, being affectionate. That's the love we are told to encourage in the young marrieds. This affectionate love, being affectionate. I have found the more affectionate you are to your husband and doing it because you know that's what you should do, that makes you more affectionate. You become more loving. It just grows and grows and grows.

Pearl: But if you're touching your phone more than you're touching your husband, you know. I mean, sometimes I ask myself that.

Nancy: Yes, that's a good one, touching your phone instead of touching your husband. Oh wow.

Pearl: Obviously, you may not be around your husband as much as you're around your phone, but if you're around your husband and your phone, husband comes first.

Nancy: Absolutely. That reminds me of a friend who was telling me she was running a big homeschool email group. She said, “Nancy, it's rather alarming. At 10 o'clock at night, that's when this homeschool group gets going.” She said, “Obviously, mothers have got their children in bed, it's the end of the day, now it’s my time.” They get onto email or social media or whatever, but it's 10 o'clock at night. Their husbands are going to bed. They are up on their social media; he's in bed on his own. What is he doing? Waiting for her. I think this is something that in social media, all these things, they actually can take over a marriage.

Pearl: Yeah, they can, if we let them. Another thing quickly on that is, one of my things, I read it somewhere else, but if I'm walking through the house, and I pass my husband, I touch him. Whether it's on the arm, or a hug, I stop him.  That is powerful in my marriage.

Nancy: Oh, it is, and I seek to do that. I must admit, I forget sometimes, but it's in my brain to do it.

Pearl: But it's training. It becomes part of your life because then, when you walk past and you didn't, you think, “Oh my goodness, I've got to go back.”

Nancy: Do you know where that came from? Well, you might have got it from somewhere else, but I wonder if we had told you the story, way back when we first married, Dad told about this man. He was in his eighties, and he walked with a walking stick, and he told my husband, “I have never passed my wife in the home without stopping to give her a hug.”

Pearl: Love it. I probably did hear it from you, Mom.

Nancy: Yes, and he was in his eighties.

Pearl: I do love looking at a man passing things down to the generations. I look at you and dad's marriage. I know it hasn't been all perfectly perfect, but oh my goodness, if there was ever a marriage where I see a love that is still romantic to this day . . .  you and dad are head over heels about one another.

Nancy: We are.

Pearl: It's literally sometimes like, oh my goodness, but it's so good. You're literally in love with each other, but that's taken tending to, right? I mean. You actually feel it. After all these years, you actually feel those feelings for that gray-headed man in the next room.

Nancy: Absolutely, yes. I am quite happy to just look at him and just think how adorable he is. I just love looking at him.

Pearl: I know, but I do want to get back to one thing, since you've got me here. A big thing that's been in my marriage too, you talked about eros love, I think that's a little bit on a platform that I want to stand on. If you're doing all these things, you got the Bible study on Wednesday night, and you're going to this group, and you're in the homeschooling, you're on the board of this and that, but your husband is alone there in bed at 10 at night!

Nancy: I know, that's wrong.

Pearl: You're talking to the Facebook group about the whatever . . .

Nancy: That is not building your marriage; it's tearing it down.

Pearl: Yes, and that physical love is so healthy for you. It builds your immune system. It builds your husband's immune system. It prevents against all sorts of diseases when it's sanctified in marriage. It is incredibly health-boosting. It actually even makes you look younger. You know, Serene and I have done podcasts, and we even have a chapter in our original Trim Healthy Mama book on that. At least initiate twice a week, if it's not happening, and that is when all those health-boosting things come in.

I do want to say though, I think especially in the Christian world, there has been this big stereotype that women never think about it, and the man's thinking about it all day. It's the stereotype of “Ugh, I have to give him sex tonight, I guess I better go be a good wife.” When there's actually a lot of women hurting because they don't feel that from their husbands. You know many husbands are getting type 2 diabetes because of the diet everyone is on and high blood sugar, and men don't feel good.

Type 2 diabetes lowers testosterone, and I think many women are hurting, and they feel alone. I feel like a really open relationship about this is something in our marriage on both sides that we need to talk about it; we need to get it right. What sets the marriage relationship apart from everything else is that physical union. It's the big difference.

If you're in your home, and you're just becoming comfortable and roommates, it's so much more than that. Sometimes you've got to rip that rug open, and there's hard things, like Mom said, the tide goes out, even with this sexual part of it. You've got to rip it open, and there's hard things there. There are things you've got to talk about, and you don't want to talk about, but you've got to go there. It's hard, but it's so worth it.

Nancy: That is true, and it's one of those things where you can get into a rut as you get older. I remember having a wake-up call. I think I was maybe in my sixties perhaps and just realized, hey, wow, it suddenly hit me. We are not coming together intimately as much as we used to.

What is wrong? What is happening? It was like a wake-up call!

Pearl: (laughs) Look at Arden over there. Arden does all of mom's recording, and he has to hear about his grandmother's intimate life.

Nancy: (laughs). But anyway, I was so glad, it was a like a wake-up. “Ok, I'm not allowing this. I have to change, so I changed.

Pearl: Yes, and it has to be the both of you. There's a stigma of when you get older, like I'm a grandmother now, that it should get less because we are all getting older, and obviously, hormones go down, and obviously, physically, sometimes it's actually harder. Sometimes there's ailments; sometimes people go through things, challenges, health issues.

Despite all that, I think it can get better, and it can stay frequent, and it should. It's like that preciousness. When somethings being tried by fire, and you come out the other end and despite all the challenges you're still there, and you're still realizing that this is so important, and this is special. That's when that preciousness is there. That's why it gets better. Not because you're physically great specimens anymore like you were when you were young because you have high hormones, and you feel it. You know those hormones you felt when you were young, and you really desire physically the sex. I think it changes, and it becomes that union where this is precious. This is so precious.

Nancy: Yes and knowing that this is what God intends. At the very beginning, God said: “A man shall leave his father and mother, and they shall become one flesh.” That's God's description of marriage, one flesh. If that's His description, and you are not one flesh, you're not really doing what you need to be doing.

Pearl: Yes, so rip up the rug, and if there's things there, problems that you haven't addressed, you've got to address them. It's worth it. That's not the only thing that will keep your marriage together. There are so many issues. We can't say that's the thing, but it's so important.

Nancy: Yes, and sadly, I think our time is going, but I would like to, because we didn't know what we were going to talk about, but because we got onto marriage, and I'm sure you have been blessed, I want to end with reading a little quote, and it's written by someone back in 1838. Goodness me, that's so long ago. As I read this, you will think, Goodness me, this seems a bit archaic.” Yes, but this is how marriage is meant to be, and I think it's good for us to get back to what God intended it to be because we are living in a day where everything is coming against marriage. The independence of women is becoming stronger and stronger and stronger. They don't feel like they can be told anything what to do by a man. There are many women that don't believe their husbands can tell them anything because, “I am a woman!” It's destroying marriages. Can I read this to you?

“Woman's mission is to be the suitable help-mate of that man to whom she has given herself as the companion of his pilgrimage upon earth.

She is, in wedded life, to be his constant companion, in whose companionship he is to find one, who meets him hand to hand,
eye to eye,
lip to lip,
and heart to heart.

To whom he can unburden the secrets of a heart pressed down with care, or wrung with anguish;
whose presence shall be to him above all other friendship;
whose voice shall be his sweetest music;
whose smile his brightest sunshine;
from whom he shall go forth with regret;
and to whose company he shall return with willing feet, when the toils of the day are over;
who shall walk near his loving heart, and feel the throbbing of affection as her arm leans on his, and presses on his side.

In his hours of private companionship, he shall tell her all the secrets of his heart; find in her all the capabilities, and all the promptings, of the most tender and endeared fellowship; and in her gentle smiles, and unrestrained speech, enjoy all to be expected in one who was given by God to be his companion and friend.

That companionship which woman was designed to afford to man, must of course be included the sympathetic offices of the comforter.

It is hers, in their hours of retirement, to console and cheer him;
when he is injured or insulted, to heal the wounds of his troubled spirit;
when burdened by care, to lighten his load by sharing it;
when groaning with anguish, to calm by her peace-speaking words the tumult of his heart;
and act, in all his sorrows, the part of a ministering angel.”

Pearl: I love that, Mom.

Nancy: So beautiful, and this is the heart of marriage. It's time we got back to God's ways and stop being influenced by this independent spirit of the day. Can you say Amen?

Pearl: Absolutely. In this day and age, it's like, don't be co-dependent on your husband. We need to be co-dependent on him, and he needs to be co-dependent on us. What junk in this modern age about separate bank accounts and my time and this and that. No. That was so beautiful what you read mom, and it's true.

Nancy: “Yes. Lord, we thank You that You showed the way for marriage. It was Your design. You planned it, and You want it to be so beautiful and one because You have made us one. I pray for every marriage, every wife today, Lord God, give her hope for her marriage. Lord God, give her that anointing of Your Spirit to rise up and love, even when there is no love and to give encouragement when she feels that she gets nothing herself. Because, Lord, your Word says that when we give, we will receive, that when we sow, we will reap. That's just the law of the universe; it's an eternal law. Father, I pray for every marriage, that You will strengthen it and bring healing and make it whole. Lord God, we ask for strong marriages. Strong marriages to fill this land because a nation is only as strong as its marriages and its families. Amen.”

Thank you Pearly for being with us today.

Pearl: You're so welcome.

*P. S. Pearl’s new grandbaby was born four weeks early by emergency c-section on Sunday, 20 January (he was trying to come footling breech). Bowen and Kahoru are so proud of their first-born son, Finn Alexander Bowen, and praise the Lord, he is doing so well.

Episode 28: The Awe and Wonder of Life in the Womb, Part 5

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

God calls the creating of the baby in the womb “marvelous” (Psalm 139:14). God uses many adjectives in His Word. We then look up the adjective in the Hebrew to understand the word and we get more adjectives! The full understanding of this Hebrew word means “extraordinary, wonderful, miraculous, astonishing,” and “difficult.” It is the revelation of God doing things beyond the bounds of human powers or expectations.” We discover where this word is used the first time in the Bible.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, dear ladies! I wonder what the weather is like where you are listening today, or tonight, all cuddled up in your bed. It's a very dull dismal day here in Tennessee. We're getting into winter, and it's very cold. But we could have a few lovely warm days yet before Christmas. Some of you, of course, you're enjoying summer, while we are enjoying winter.

Anyway, we're going to get on today, by continuing to talk about this amazing, awesome, incredible, astounding creation of the baby in the womb. This is our fifth session on this series, and I hope to finish it today, because next week, I've asked my daughter Pearl to come and be with us on the podcast, so I know you'll just want to be hearing her!

So, let's get on with it today. We are still in Psalm 139. We were talking last week about how God skillfully creates the baby in the womb. It's the picture of a needle-worker, stitching everything together. God uses beautiful picturesque language in His Word. It says that He creates the baby in the darkness, in the dark place of the womb. Of course, we understand that light and darkness are the same with God.

Another beautiful thing for us to remember is that because God is the One who began our lives, right at conception, God was there. Conception does not happen without God. God is in it all. Because He is there at the very beginning of our lives, we can trust Him that He is going to continue to work in our lives. He works in our lives, creating and preparing us to come forth into this world while we are in those months in the womb.

But He doesn't forget about us when we come into this world. No, God never forgets about you. The Bible says: “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” Well, the Bible says she may forget, “But I will not forget you, says the Lord. You are graven on the palms of my hands.” You can be comforted that God is still working in your life, of course, if you will let Him.

I love that Scripture in Philippians 1: 6: “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” And so God began His work in you at conception. He's going to continue that work in you until the day that you meet Him face to face. You can trust Him, you can bring this promise before Him, you can say: “Thank You, Father, thank You that You are working in me today.” Because God's work, even in the womb, is not only physically, but it's inwardly.

We also are aware too that when a little baby is born into this world, he's still not completely and fully developed. His respiratory system is still not fully developed, and that's why it's so important to have skin-to-skin contact with the baby. It's better for your baby being next to you, even in bed at night, skin-to-skin, than lying in a bed on its own, because skin-to-skin contact helps to develop that respiratory system.

The eyes are not fully developed. They often continue developing, even up to three years. The brain is not fully developed at birth, either. Many scientists have said for years that the brain doesn't reach full maturity until about 25 years of age, although now we have newer scientists saying that they believe that the brain reaches full maturity at 13 years of age.

That's the thing with science; it keeps changing. Often, of course, as they have more incredible instruments and machinery to be able to find out more, their understanding becomes more knowledgeable. So, at the moment, there is a little fight, with scientists between “Okay, is it 25 years, or is it 13 years?”

I think I'll go with the 13 years, because that's a more modern scientific discovery. Also, I think that as our children come into those adolescent years, I believe it's the time for them to mature into adults, not to still act like little children. We know that the Israeli people have a bar mitzvah for their sons when they are 13. They are expected then to grow into maturity. So, I don't know for sure, but I think I'll go with the 13 years.

It's interesting that even though some of the physical parts of the body still continue to mature, of course, the whole body does as it grows! We don't look like the little baby we were when we were born. We're totally different now. We're growing all the time. That's the amazing thing about God's creation. It continues, and it's not only physically, but it's the inner workings as well.

You remember, how at the very beginning of this passage, it talks about how God possesses our reins. Our reins speak of our mind and heart and emotions, and the inner workings of who we are. God continues to work on our inner man. He wants to take us from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3;18). He wants to change us and mold us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).

He continues to work on us, yes, physically, but in us. Oh, trust Him to continue working in you! Ask Him to work in you, more and more every day.

10. God is the first Architect

Well, let's go on to the next Scripture, verse 16: “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect.” The word for substance here is a different word from the one we've already read. We talked about substance, how it means our bones and our frame, and how God is creating the bones of the baby in the womb. But here it doesn't mean that. It's a totally different word.

The word is golem, and it means a “wrapped and formed mass, the embryo.” It comes from the root word, galam, meaning “to fold, to wrap together.” It's a picture of the baby in the womb, in the very early stages of the folded fetal position.

The psalmist is here trying to describe that. It's so difficult to describe it in words. It's amazing, because the psalmist who wrote these words had never seen an ultrasound. He had no idea of what everything looks like in the womb. Yet God was supernaturally . . . he was writing by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, seeing perhaps far more than we even understand today.

It says here: “Thine eyes did see . . . ” Yes, God saw us, right from the very beginning, just as that little embryo. Did you know that God even saw us beyond that? He saw us even before we were conceived. That's the teaching of the Word of God. He saw us, His eyes beheld us, even before we were conceived. Isn't that amazing?

You see, God is a great Architect. No architect suddenly builds a building. “OK, let build this amazing, wonderful building!” Making all this incredible design. No, he first sits down at his drawing board. He uses his imagination and his skills to create a whole new design, something no one else has ever built before. So he makes the plans.

God does this too. He was the first Architect. Of course, He was the Designer of who we are today. Male and female, and the way He created the male and the way He created the female. All God's works are perfect! Over and over again, the Scripture says the works of God are perfect. They were planned in the eternal realm.

But not only did He plan the way He would create man and woman, but He had a special design, a special unique design for every new human being. You are different from everyone else in the world. I am different from everyone else in the world. My, I'm so glad there's only one of me! It would be not so good to have too many of me around! But isn't God so good? Every single person who has ever been born in this world is unique and different.

In Jeremiah 1:5 see a picture of this. God was speaking to Jeremiah, and He said: “Before I formed thee in the womb . . .” Did you notice that first word? Before? Before? “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee.” Isn't that amazing? God knew Jeremiah before he was even conceived. God knew you before you were even conceived. God knew each one of your precious children before they were conceived. Our God is Omniscient. He is all-knowing.

Sometimes, precious ladies, we need to take time to contemplate on the character of our God, and Who He is. We dare not take Him for granted. We dare not bring Him down to our level. There is a Scripture that says, and God is speaking, and He says: “And you thought that I was altogether like one of you? I will rebuke you, the Lord says” (Psalm 50:21). How often are we guilty of doing this?

Because we're so human, we tend to bring God down to our level. No, He is God, He is the Omniscient God, the All-Knowing. He knows your thoughts that you haven't yet thought, the thoughts you will think in the next hour and the next day and the next week. He knows them before you even think them. This is our God. He knew Jeremiah before he was born. And He knows us, each one of us, before we were born.

Let's look at it a little more personally and notice all the pronouns. I'll read it to you again, this same Scripture, from the New English translation: “Before I formed you . . . ” God is speaking personally to Jeremiah. Now Jeremiah is no longer in the womb. He's no longer a little baby. He's no longer a child. He's grown up! God is speaking to a grown-up person, and He says in Jeremiah 1:4, 5: “Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Before I formed you (yes, I'm speaking to you, Jeremiah! Before I formed you) in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” In those two little Scriptures, we have SIX times God speaks to Jeremiah, using the pronoun “you.”

Yes, Jeremiah was Jeremiah, right when he was conceived. He was the same person. That was when his DNA was put together, when the 23 chromosomes of his father, and the 23 chromosomes of his mother came together. That became Jeremiah. That was his DNA, and that would be on his fingerprints. No one will ever have that DNA again. That was him from conception. It's the same.

I was me when I was conceived. Same person. You were you when you were conceived. Same person.

Let’s have a look a little more at that Scripture, shall we? In Jeremiah . . .  because it's an amazing Scripture. We'll look at some of the words. The first thing it says is: “I formed you.” “I formed you.” Now, that's the same word that we have in Psalm 139: 16. This special passage we're looking at, in this Scripture, God says that He fashions us. He's talking about the little embryo in the womb, at the very beginning of conception and growing in the womb.

He says: “I fashioned this little baby.” Here it says, “I formed,” but it's the same Hebrew word It's yatsar. If you want to know a little bit more, it's number 3335 in the Strong's Concordance. This is what it means, “to squeeze into shape, to mold into a form as a potter molds the shape, and molds it into a beautiful form, to fashion, to make, and to have purpose.” That's the meaning of this word. Same word in verse 16 here in Psalm 139 is the same word here in Jeremiah 1:5.

When I find a word in the Scriptures, I love to find the other Scriptures where the same word is used. When you do that, you get a greater understanding of that word. Now I won't give you all the Scriptures, because there are loads of Scriptures in the Bible with this yatsar word in it. But can I give you just a few?

Zechariah 12:1: “The Lord, which stretchest forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth” . . . that's the word, “formeth,” “fashioneth,” the word yatsar. “the Spirit of man within him.” Oh ladies! Isn't that a powerful Scripture? Because here God is saying that He not only forms the physical frame, and bones and sinews and organs and vessels of the body, but He's the One Who forms the spirit of the man, the mind, and the heart, and the soul, the inner workings, the conscience, that God-consciousness. God forms that as well.

You see, this is the wonder, the awe, of God creating a life in the womb! It's not just physical! It's spiritual as well. God begins that in the womb, and here we have it in proof. It is God that fashions the spirit of man within him.

Let's read Isaiah 44:24: “Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee,” there's the word! “formed thee from the womb.” Do you notice how God loves using the word “womb”? It's a word that God loves. “I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by itself.”

Now, here in this Scripture, we see that the formation and fashioning of the baby in the womb is likened to the creating of the world. That's how awesome it is.

Let me take you to a few more Scriptures. These Scriptures talk about God being the Potter. It's the same word again, ladies. See, that's the exciting thing of finding out what the Hebrew word is, because when you find that word out, and you find all the other places where it is used in the Scripture, you find that so many different words are used.

Now we've just already seen it used as “fashioned,” it means “formed,” and now we're going to read some verses about how it's translated “potter,” and other different words. So let's go!

Isaiah 29:16: “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay . . . ” that's the word, yatsar! “for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?”

Here God is challenging us. This is a challenge to us as women. I often hear women complaining about being a woman, complaining about their womanly cycles, complaining even about their womb. In fact, there are many women, they don't even want their womb to function. In fact, they go to great lengths to make sure it can't function. They make sure they cannot conceive. And yet here, God challenges us, and says, “Do you not understand the way I made you?”

Now, you know many potters. But God is THE Potter. He is the first Potter. He is the original Potter. In fact, God is the First in everything, ladies. He was the first architect, He was the first home builder, the One Who created the Garden of Eden, the first home, which is a prototype of all homes to come.

He was the first clothes designer. He is the One Who, after Adam and Eve had sinned . . . what did they do? Oh, they found some fig leaves and put it around them. But that didn't clothe them. God had to come and God had to kill an animal and shed blood. Then He made clothes that completely covered them from the shoulder down, because that's what the Hebrew says. It was a full covering.

Now I believe that those clothes were not just some skin hanging around their backs. Have you seen pictures of Adam and Eve going out of the Garden? They've got sort of a sheepskin or some kind of bearskin just hanging around their shoulders.

Oh goodness me, ladies. Oh, our God, the Creator of the world, the Creator, the awesome Designer of the baby in the womb, He doesn't give just a bit of a sheepskin or bearskin or cow skin to throw over your shoulders. I am sure that the clothing that Adam and Eve wore would have been the most beautiful leather design that you could have ever behold.

I mean, sometimes we see clothes made out of leather, but they would not have a patch on that design that God created out of those skins. They would have been beautiful and amazing and incredible.

So, God was the first real estate Agent. He was the first Embroiderer. We could just go on and on.

He was also the first Potter. He said, “I am the Potter. I am the One Who designed your body. And you don't want to accept it? Do you think you know better than Me?”

Then we go to Isaiah 45:9-10: “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! (same word, yatsar, the one who forms and fashions, the One Who is the Potter) Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, (same Hebrew word) What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?”

So God challenges us when we complain, when we reject the way God created us, the way He created our female bodies. Precious ladies, the most basic, the most knowledgeable, the most reasonable thing we can do is embrace and accept the way our Potter, our Maker, our Designer, created us. He is the Creator. He knows what He is doing.

Now we read Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy Hand.”

Psalm 100: 3: “Know ye not that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;” In the margin of my Bible it says, for the words “not we ourselves,” it says, “His we are.” We belong to Him. He was our Creator, and we belong to Him. We found that out at the very beginning of this passage in Psalm 139, if you have been listening to this series. If not, I encourage you to go back. This is number five in the series. Go back to the very beginning.

And we found that the first thing that God says about creating the baby in the womb is that God possessed us. That means He owns us. He is the Owner because He is the Creator. HIS WE ARE. We belong to Him.

Psalm 119:73: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.:” And so we get all these beautiful Scriptures, just some of them I've given to you, of how God forms and fashions us.

Back to Jeremiah 1:5: God not only fashioned him, He says that God knew him. Knew him before he was born! Ladies, how can a mother abort a child in her womb that God already knows? A child that God knew before it was conceived? This is a child that is in God's heart.

Number three. God sanctified him! In the womb! The word is qadesh. It means to be set apart as a holy vessel, purified, dedicated, and consecrated. This is where God . . .

What's our time? Oh, 30 minutes? Well, I'll have to start wrapping up, won't I? OK, God sanctifies him, and He also appointed his destiny. God appointed the destiny of Jeremiah, not when he was 12 years old, not when he was 25 years old, but when he was in the womb! In the womb, I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations! Amen!

Yes, isn't that wonderful? Oh, here's another one. I must read you this. Isaiah 49:1: “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name.” This is actually a Messianic Scripture regarding Jesus. But isn't it amazing, that even in this Messianic Scripture, that God is not ashamed to use these words, to use the words “womb,” and “mother,” because these words are so precious to God.

Now, let's get to this next point in this Scripture. Not only is He fashioning the baby, but He says that while we were in the womb, that He wrote everything about us, about the way He created us, about every member of our physical body, and also our inner workings too, as we've been finding out, and our destiny.

He wrote them all in a book! Yes, God has books, lots of books. Actually, that's another study that I want to do; all the different kinds of books that God has. But one of the books He has, maybe He's got hundreds and thousands and millions of books of these, of how He's writing about every little thing about us, in the womb, and our destiny.

Now that word, “book,” let me see, because somewhere I have got what it means. Yes, it's cefer, or however you pronounce it in Hebrew (say-fer). It means “writing.” It means “a book, a letter, a scroll, or a scribe.” So God is also a Scribe. He was the first Scribe. He was the First of everything.

We also see, oh yes, so after the psalmist has been writing all these amazing, amazing descriptions, how God creates the baby in the womb before we were even conceived, He goes on to say in verse 17: “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee.”

After the psalmist has described His incredible, miraculous workings in the womb, and we have been five weeks talking about them, he goes on to say, oh, I just can hardly take them in. I mean, they are just more than I can ever imagine, because they don't just finish in the womb. They start there in the womb and God continues His workings with us every day.

Now, I would like to finish with revealing something to you from this beautiful psalm (Palm 139). I hope you'll read the whole psalm over again, because it's so wonderful. In this psalm, we see beautiful aspects of the character of God. We see His Omniscience. That's His all-knowingness. God knows everything. We see that in verses one to six. I won't read it all, perhaps just a little bit here. Yes, “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.“ That's a bit challenging, isn't it, with some of the words we say sometimes.

Wow. He says: “Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.” Also, we see His Omniscience in the passage we have been learning about the creating of the baby.

Then we see the Omnipresence of God revealed in this psalm. In verses seven to twelve, the psalmist says that it doesn't matter where I go. I can't even get away from Your presence. “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.” There is nowhere I can go where God is not, because He is Omnipresent. Oh, it's so incredible.

Then we see His Omnipotence, that is His all-powerfulness. We learned so much of that in verses 13 to 16, of His creation of the baby in the womb. In this creation, we see His Omniscience, and His Omnipotence.

Then we see Him as the Omnibenevolent God, the God Who is all good, and all loving, when David says: “How precious are your thoughts to me, and how great is the sum of them,” and so on.

We also see His Omnisapience, that's His all-wisdom. God is all wisdom. He is the only One Who has all wisdom. We know some people who can be very wise, but they only have an aspect of wisdom. It's only God who has all wisdom.

Romans 16:27: “To the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” It's only in Christ that I have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They are all in Him. We see His wisdom as we have been studying this beautiful passage of Psalm 139 and the creation of the baby.

Therefore, ladies, I love that, don't you? We see one, two, three, four, five, of the omni descriptions of our wonderful God in this psalm.

Well, time has gone, and I trust you have been blessed. If you haven't got to hear all the sessions, we've done five sessions on this passage, go back and listen to them all. You will be so blessed.

Let me pray.

“Dear Father, I thank You so much for Your incredible creation, that You are the One Who fashioned us and formed us in the womb. We thank You, Oh God, that Your workings in our lives do not stop at the womb, but You continue to work in us. You have promised to continue working in us, and we can be confident that You will do this until the day of Jesus Christ.

I pray, Father, that You will move and work in every heart and soul and mind of every precious mother and daughter listening to this podcast, that we will all be those who are soft and sensitive and open to listen to Your voice, to be open to Your workings in our lives. Lord, we know that sometimes Your workings are not easy, because You have to deal with us. You have to speak to us, You have to correct us. It's not always easy. But we thank You that, Lord, as we receive this from You, You bring us into a larger place. You grow us, and we grow and learn. I pray that You will help us to all grow into the image of Christ, for that is Your ultimate plan for our lives.

We thank You, Father, and I bless every mother, every wife, every daughter who is listening now. In the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Episode 27: The Awe and Wonder of Life in the Womb, Part 4

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Dear ladies, we continue our wonderful description of the baby in the womb from Psalm 139.

I’d like to read to you Ecclesiastes 11:5: “As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God, who knows everything.” This Scripture talks about God naming the bones in the womb of the mother. We talked about that last time, how God creates the bones of the boy baby stronger than the female. Yet God, who knows all things in His plan, the way He wants us to live, He made the male with stronger bones. He has 50% more brute strength than women.

He made the woman, although she doesn’t have that same physical strength, He gave her another strength. He has put within her an ability to be able to, often, resist infection and diseases. Of course, we can all succumb to sickness, but somehow, we will get through it in a way that often males can’t. When there’s stress, the birth of a baby, if it’s a male, it’s more scary because a little baby girl will always survive more than a male baby.

There’s something about a survival in a woman, right from birth. This is right from birth, and God has done that because a mother needs to have that survival ability, as she has to care for her children in the home. Even when she does feel ill and sick, somehow she has to keep going. Not in maybe the same way that she usually does, but somehow, she has to keep going. I know you’ve been through that. I’ve been through that so many times, but God enables us.

Did you notice in that Scripture I read? “You don’t know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child.” Do you notice those words? “With child.” This is how the Bible describes a woman being pregnant.

In Genesis 16:11, the angel said to Hagar: “Behold, though art with child and shall bear a son.”

When Tamar was having a baby, it says in Genesis 38:24, 25 that she was “with child.”

In Exodus 21:22 it says: “If men strive and hurt a woman with child, he shall be surely punished.” This is talking about a woman who is pregnant.

Isaiah 26:17: “Like as woman with child, that draws near to her time of delivery.” And so many other Scriptures. I love that, don’t you? God speaks the truth. God speaks as things actually are. He knows that when a woman conceives, from that moment, she is with child. The little child, the little baby that comes forth from her womb, it was a child even from the very beginning. It’s the same person who will grow up one day to get married and have children of their own. I think it’s good to get the right language, don’t you?

I think of another wonderful word. 2 Timothy 3:15. Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says, “And that from a child,” he uses this word child here. “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.” How old was Timothy when Paul says, “From a child you knew the Holy Scriptures.”? How old was he? Well, we don’t really know, of course, but it’s interesting to find more Scriptures about that word.

It’s the word brephos. It’s used in other places. It’s used of Jesus when he was in the womb, and it talks about the babe in the womb, and it’s the word brephos. That word can mean a baby in the womb. We read about it in the words of Elizabeth in Luke 1:41, 44: “And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe (brephos) leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost . . . For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine years, the baby (brephos) leaped in my womb or joy.”

It talks about Jesus again when the angels said to the shepherds: “You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). That word babe is brephos. This word can mean a baby in the womb, a baby who is just born, and a child who is a little older, perhaps a toddler or getting even a little older. God sees that child. He uses the same word for the child in the womb as He does for the child who can know and learn the Scriptures. There we are reminded again.

Let’s continue, shall we, with our finding out what God says about how He creates the baby.

No. 8: God secretly creates us

This time we are going to read verse 15 again. “When I was made in secret,” Yes, “When I was made in secret.” Wow. What does that mean? That means God secretly makes us. God secretly creates the baby. The New Living Translation says: “Formed in utter seclusion.” The word “secret” is the Hebrew word cether, pronounced say-ther. This is what it means, “covering, hiding place, protection, secret place, sheltered place.”

Here is another word. We have already read of how God covered us in the womb, here it’s even more. Its not only covering; it’s a secret place, a hiding place. What is a hiding place, ladies? When your children play hide and seek, they go away and hide, and they want to hide so that nobody can find them. A hiding place is somewhere where someone can’t find us. The secret place is the same. Its secret from everybody else. This is what the word says.

I think we have sort of forgotten this Scripture in our modern-day society because, with the development of science, we now have ultrasound. Now it has become normal for women who are with child to go monthly and get their ultrasound and check out what’s happening. Of course, when they get to that time when they can find out the sex of the baby, they are going in to make sure they find out what this baby is going to be.

But I wonder about all these things. I am such a stickler for the Word of God that I always come back to it. Of course, I will concede that ultrasound is a modern science that can help save babies, and often, it can be a wonderful blessing to help save a baby’s life. Although, sadly, it can often be the opposite. Today, many women, when they have an ultrasound, will be told that there is something wrong with their baby, that there is something not quite right, and two things happen there.

Number one, this can be such a dampening upon the pregnancy, such worries, such fears, instead of the pregnancy being a time of joy and wonder. The couple are overcome with fears and desperation. It can even be worse. Usually today, doctors will say, “Well, you can terminate this baby if you want.” And so many will do this. If it’s not perfection, they will terminate the baby. How sad how many babies are terminated, killed, because an ultrasound showed something that was perhaps not the norm.

Yet, there are others, of course, who hold on to life, who know life is precious, that life comes from God. No matter what any doctor says, or what an ultrasound shows, they would keep their baby. Sometimes the baby is born with a problem, but this baby is still so precious. This is life, life from God. Many other times, these babies are born and the problem that they saw in the womb is no longer there. The babies are born perfectly. I’ve heard many testimonies of mothers who have shared this.

On one hand, ultrasound can be a blessing. On the other hand, it can be used to end the life of many babies. Often, these babies would be born perfectly. You see, lovely ladies, God is creating the baby in secret. God is the creator. He is doing it His way in His time. Yes, we have science that says that this happens at this time, and this happens at this time in the womb. I don’t think its always exact. God is doing the work, and we must trust Him.

As I said, I do concede that there are times when this can be a saving of lives, but I do wonder about just having to have another ultrasound to find the sex of the baby, to pry into this hidden place, to pry into this secret place, to pry into what God is doing. There are many great artists who will not allow anyone to see their painting until it is finished. There are many great sculptors who will not allow anyone to see their masterpiece until it is finished. I think God is like that.

Now ladies, I am not condemning anyone who is going to do that because I know that we are like sheep. We just give in to what everyone does, and now everyone \goes to find out the sex of the baby. In fact, the sex of the baby and the name of the baby is often brandished all over social media before the baby is even born.

But can I just put a little thought in your hearts? Can we really take notice of the Word that God creates in secret? And I think one of the reasons is that God loves surprises. He loves surprises. This is where we get this idea of giving surprises to your children. As a parent, I’ve always loved to give surprises. Christmastime . . . If my children found out what I was giving them for Christmas, I didn’t even feel like giving it to them. Everything was secret in our place at Christmastime. Everyone was hiding their gifts, and we all had to keep them secret because it was so exciting when they found out what they were going to get. If they knew, well, they just get it; there’s no surprise; there’s no excitement. I think God loves that.

Even in daily life, I would often give my children surprises. When they were little, if they were all getting grizzly and upset, “Children, I want you to all go and hide behind the sofas.” They’d go and find a little hiding place. Then I would make them a special little plate of some snacks because, often a few little snacks, well, it’s amazing how it will change their behavior. I would make some little cut apples, or cheese, or raisins or cookies and arrange them in a smiley face or some other little shape and make it look really attractive. Then I would say, “Ok, time for a surprise!” They would all come out running and here was their surprise. I would do something different each time, and they were so excited. It was just a little surprise, but children love surprises.

I believe that God loves to give us a surprise. He’s creating this masterpiece because every precious baby is a divine masterpiece, and He can’t wait to give this gift to us. He’s waiting so that we can have this surprise. But of course, we already know, so God can’t give us that surprise. I think it’s something to really think about.

But you say, “Well, goodness me, how can we even have our baby shower? I want to know the sex of the baby so that I can do the baby’s room and make it the right color, and everyone needs to know what they can bring me for gifts for my baby shower.” Well, back when I was having my babies, way back then all those years ago, it was either blue for boys or pink for girls, but today, babies wear all kinds of colors. We don’t need to rely so specifically on the colors.

Back in our day, we never ever had a baby shower before the baby was born. We always had the baby shower after the baby was born. There’s something special about that too because then you can celebrate the baby, and everybody can see the baby. Then they know what it is and can bring the appropriate gift to you. That’s another thing too about the surprises. When someone you know well is having a baby, and you know what sex it is, you know what the name is, and then they have the baby and you hear, oh, they’ve had their baby. “Oh great, well that’s wonderful,” but there’s not the same intensity of suspense and surprise. “Oh, what is it? What is it?” There’s something so amazing about what this baby is going to be. Is it a boy or a girl? Even to find out the name is exciting too. We save ourselves having a lot of wonderful surprises, don’t we?

I better give you some more Scriptures where this word is used, this word cether.

Psalm 27:5: “For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle shall he hide me.” Well, if God is wanting to hide us and protect us and cover us in a secret place, do you think everybody wants to pry into that secret place? No.

Psalm 31:20: “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man.” These are all the same Hebrew words of how God creates the baby secretly.

Psalm 32:7: “Though art my hiding place.”

Psalm 61:4: “I will abide in thy tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of thy wings.” It’s good to see other Scriptures, isn’t it? Where the same word is used because it gives us the full understanding, and we know what it really means.

Did you get that? I wonder if you’ll think about it. Do you think you could really last out for God’s surprise at the end? I wonder if you could.

No. 9: God skillfully creates us

Verse 15. “I was skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” Can I give you some other translations?

God’s Word Translation: “skillfully woven in an underground workshop.” I like that.

The New English Translation: “was sewed together.”

The Contemporary English Version says: “I was secretly woven together, out of human sight.”

The English Standard Version says: “I was intricately woven together.”

Another translation says: “embroidered with great skill.”

Another: “when I was wrought with a needle in the depths of the earth.”

This is a very poetic description. It’s a poetic description of God sewing together the veins and the sinews and the muscles and the nerves. A beautiful tapestry. In fact, Charles Spurgeon says: “What tapestry can equal the human fabric?”

What is the Hebrew word? It’s raqam, and it means “to variegate, color, to embroider, to do needlework.” Ok ladies, this word, Hebrew word, is only used nine times in the Scripture. Here in Psalm 139:15: “I was skillfully woven” and all the other times speak of needlework or embroidery. Six times it translated needlework, two times embroidery. God was the first embroiderer and He creates us with needlepoint accuracy.

Something even more wonderful, ladies; I want you to get this. The other eight times this Hebrew word is used, it’s only used in the context of the tabernacle, God’s sacred dwelling place. This time, in God’s sacred place of the womb, where He creates the baby, where He sews it together with his divine needlework. All these Scriptures are in the environment of the sacred place. God chose Bezalel and Oholiab to work in the tabernacle, to embroider the priest’s clothes and the curtains of the temple. It was so intricate; it was very, very intricate work. They actually couldn’t do it unless God was with them.

I’ve got some Scriptures here. Exodus 28:29 (ESV): “You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen. And you shall make a sash of fine needlework.” This was talking about the high priest’s garments. They couldn’t do this—Bezalel and Oholiab wouldn’t have been able to do it unless God with them.

The Bible says in Exodus 35:31-35: “God filled both Bezalel and Oholiab with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge in all manner of workmanship.” It goes on to say that He filled them “with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer.” God filled them with His spirit to enable them because they were doing something for the sacred inner sanctuary. It had to be so perfect, just as God perfectly, skillfully creates the baby in the womb.

Now, another amazing thing here. As I said, this all happened, all the other references to this needlework and embroidery were all for the tabernacle, the Holy Place, where God dwelt in His shekinah glory.

When God told Moses how to build the tabernacle. He told him how to build the Holy of Holies. In 1 Kings 6:16, He told them to make an inner sanctuary, the most holy place. Where did He tell him to do it? At the far end of the temple. Actually, this Scripture is now catapulting to the time of Solomon because now we are no longer in the tabernacle. Now Solomon is building a temple. It’s the same pattern as the tabernacle, but now it’s the temple. Exactly the same pattern, but he is doing it at the far end of the temple.

The Amplified Version says: “at the very rear of the temple.” The word in the Hebrew is eureka which means, “in the very recesses, in the inner part.” God wanted His Holy of Holies not to be out in the open, not be where everybody could come in and be there with God. Oh no. When you came into the tabernacle or the temple, first of all, there was the brazen altar where they sacrificed the animals. Then you went into the Holy Place, and then you went into the Holy of Holies, AT THE VERY FAR END. It was secluded, it was at the end, it was hidden because God was in the hidden place.

It’s amazing how He talks about the womb; it’s in the hidden part of the woman. It’s not the outward limbs of the body; no, it’s the hidden part. It’s a sacred place where God works. That’s why it’s sacred; that’s why its hidden because this is where God works. When a baby is conceived, God is working in His sacred sanctuary of the womb to create a life in His image.

Wondrously, this same word, eureka, that was used for making the Holy of Holies at the very far end of the temple; God uses it of the woman in the home. I was amazed when I saw this. In Psalm 128:3 it talks about the woman in the home: “Your wife is like a fruitful vine within your home, your children like olive plants all around your table.” The word, “Your wife is like a fruitful vine in the heart of your home” is eureka, meaning “in the recesses, in the inner court”. This is where God wants us to be stationed, in the inner recesses of the home.

Of course, we are going to go out, got to go and get our groceries, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that. But this is where our heart is. This is where we mainly live. This is where we make life. This is where we raise our children. This is where we make our home a sanctuary. We are in this hidden part of the home.

Now, not everybody is seeing what we are doing, but we are doing a powerful work. Just like the womb is hidden. It’s a sacred sanctuary, yet, although it’s hidden, it’s one of the most powerful places on earth. Because this is where each life comes forth to fill the world with great blessing, great inventions, and great discoveries, and to bring God and His love and His revelation and His truth to the world. It all comes from the womb, this hidden place, but out from the hidden place comes life that comes into the world. It’s the same in our home. As we raise our children in our home, in this eureka, in the recesses, in this heart of the home, out from the heart of the home, we send children to impact the world. Isn’t it amazing?

Oh, darling ladies, never despise your womb. It is the greatest gift God has given to you, in your body, to bring forth life, to bring forth an eternal soul. Don’t speak disparagingly, don’t speak negatively about your womb or your womanly functions because that can bring a curse upon your womb. Satan is out to destroy the wombs of women, to bring curses upon them, to bring sickness upon them. We mustn’t give the enemy one little inch because he can take a mile. Only speak positively about your womb.

Even to go around, as so many women do, and you may ask them, “Oh, do you plan to have any more children?” They may have one or two, perhaps they’re wanting to have another one.

 “Oh no, I’m done.”

What is that saying? “I don’t like my womb. Oh goodness me. We’ve put a stop to that; we don’t embrace our womb.”

“Oh no, I don’t want anything to do with that. Is that really part of my body? Well if it is, I’m going to make sure it doesn’t work.”

What are we doing? We are speaking against God’s creation and against purposes that He has to bring forth children from our womb. Do watch how you speak about your womb; it is so powerful.

Now we haven’t even finished this Scripture yet. It’s amazing. “I was made in secret. I was skillfully wrought in the lowest part of the earth.” Now, here we have another very poetic description. “The lowest part of the earth” also speaks of darkness because God works in the dark, although, light can come into the womb especially as you go out into the sun. Light can penetrate the womb, but the womb is primarily dark.

But the wonderful thing is, ladies, that God is able to work in the darkness as well as the light. I mean, what does it say in Psalm 139? This is exactly the same Psalm. In Psalm 139:2 it says: “Yet the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as if in the day. The darkness and the light are both alike unto thee.”

Daniel said in Daniel 2;22: “He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.” Darkness is like light to God. It doesn’t even change. Ladies, that speaks to us too, in our dark times, in our difficult times. Sometimes we go through dark times. You may be going through a dark place in your life. I want you to know that, even when you’re going through a dark time, God knows. He is with you, and He can bring light to you. The darkness is not darkness to Him. He will bring light to you even in the darkness. Amen?

Let’s pray shall we?

“Father, we thank You again for Your Word, for Your revelation and showing us what You do in the womb. We praise You, and we bless You, and I pray today for every mother, for every wife, for every daughter, every grandmother. I pray that You will pour out Your blessing upon them today. I pray that You’ll draw them closer and closer to Your truth, that they will be those who seek after truth, that they will love Your Word, that they will love truth. Oh God, I pray that You will raise them up to be heralders and raise the banner of truth in their lives, in their homes, and wherever they go. Oh God, it’s time, in this hour in which we live, to be truth-speakers, speaking out Your truth, making it known to our children wherever we go. We ask that You will anoint us to do this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Episode 26: The Awe and Wonder of Life in the Womb, Part 3

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

God calls the creating of the baby in the womb “marvelous” (Psalm 139:14). God uses many adjectives in His Word. We then look up the adjective in the Hebrew to understand the word and we get more adjectives! The full understanding of this Hebrew word means “extraordinary, wonderful, miraculous, astonishing,” and “difficult.” It is the revelation of God doing things beyond the bounds of human powers or expectations.” We discover where this word is used the first time in the Bible.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Good to be with you again today, dear mothers and wives, and whoever is listening. I hope young ones, middlings, and older, are all listening to the wonderful revelations we are all talking about in God's Word. Currently, we are doing the series of the wonderful, amazing description of how God creates the baby in the womb, from Psalm 139.

This, of course, not only relates to a little baby in the womb, which is happening right now, but it's about our own lives, where we originated, where we began. I want to mention a little thought as I begin today, from verse 13. Remember, it's Psalm 139.

The Psalmist, David himself, says: “Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.” You notice there, there's a personal pronoun. If we read this beautiful description again, let's just notice the personal pronouns of this Scripture. “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. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes sought my unformed substance. In Your Book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet, there was none of them.”

Now, David is not talking about a little “it” in the womb. He's talking about himself. Me! Now David is not a little baby when he's writing this. David is a grown man. David is a great, mighty warrior. David is the king of Israel. He's talking about the beginning of his life. He's talking about it as though it is him, right now.

And that is the truth. That's the truth we have to understand, that you, dear precious mother, you were you in the womb the moment you were conceived. That was you! You were not someone else. You were you, right then. Of course, from there you grew and grew, and you have changed all the way through. You changed as you grew in the womb. Then you changed as you came forth from the womb to grow to who you are today. But that was you.

Let's go to Jeremiah 1:5. Here God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah. He says: “Before I formed you . . . ” Notice again, that personal pronoun, “You.” Yes, God is speaking to Jeremiah, not as...He's speaking to him as an adult. Yes, but He's speaking to him as when he began. He said, “Before I formed you.” Before I formed you, you, in your mother's womb, I chose you. I chose you. You!

Yes, this was in the womb. Jeremiah was already who he was, right back there. “Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” We see here, this very personal pronoun, and that God was speaking destiny over Jeremiah. “Even in the womb, before you were born, I set you apart. I sanctified you. Before you were born, I ordained you. I appointed you.”

The actual meaning of that word, “appointed,” or “ordained,” means “to give, as a gift.” God said: “I gave you, as a gift, to the nations.” Every precious baby that God gives to us, dear mothers, is not only a gift to us, not only a gift to our family, but a gift to the world!

God gives each precious new baby as a gift, to bring revelation of Who He is to the world. It's good to be reminded, isn't it, that we are who we are now, right from the beginning of conception. When the 23 chromosomes of your father, and the 23 chromosomes of your mother joined together at fertilization, that was you! That was your DNA. Your DNA, which was unique from anybody else who has ever been born, or who will ever be born again.

That's your DNA. It's not going to change. It doesn't change in the womb, and it doesn't change when you're born, and as you get older. Your DNA is who you are, from the very beginning, that moment of fertilization. That was you. Isn't that amazing?

Let's go on to our next description.

No. 5: God marvelously creates us.

We are finding that these descriptions are so amazing. God said He created us wonderfully. We talked about that last time. Now we go on to verse 14, where it says: “Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.”

God not only creates us wonderfully, but He creates us marvelously. So many adjectives! God uses loads of adjectives in His Word, because He needs these adjectives to describe the wonder of His workings.

And this word, shall we look into this one today? It's very similar to the last one. Last week He creates us wondrously, and that word is palah, with an “H.”

This word is pala. It's a different Hebrew word. Yes, very similar, but different. It also means, “to be separate, to be distinguished, to be singular,” but also, also . . . get this, ladies, “to be extraordinary, wonderful, miraculous, astonishing, hard, or difficult,” meaning it's not something that man can do very well. It's something that only God can do.

It's the revelation of God, “doing things beyond the bounds of human powers or expectations.” We read this word in other Scriptures in Psalm 9:1. It says: “I will show forth all thy marvelous works.”

In 1 Chronicles 16: 9, 12 it says: “Talk ye of all His wondrous works . . . Remember His marvelous works that He has done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth.”

Isaiah 28:29: “The Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.” All using that Hebrew word, pala. It's talking about all the wondrous works of the Lord. Of course, here, it's talking about the wondrous work of God creating the baby in the womb. It's amazing, isn't it?

Here we read, “marvelously.” But then God has to use all these extra adjectives to explain the fullness of the Hebrew word. Did you get them? Let me give them to you again. We have to realize, this is the incredible miracle of how God created us—you, me, and the precious children God has given to us.

It's extraordinary, wonderful, miraculous, astonishing! When was this word first used first? We go back to Genesis 18:14. This is in the context of when God came and visited Abram, well, he's Abraham now, and told them that they were going to have a child.

Verse nine, well, the three men came to Abraham, and God said: “Where is Sarah, your wife? And he (Abraham) said, Behold, in the tent. And he (God) said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and lo, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

But we know that Sarah was listening behind the tent door. She knew that Abraham was old, and she was old. How could this happen?  And she laughed. “And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?'”

Then God says these words in verse 14: “Is anything too hard for the Lord? That question was used right in the middle of God speaking of a miracle of birth. Sarah was not able to conceive, but God said, “I'm going to do a miracle. I'm going to do something that man cannot do. And Sarah will have a child.”

Now this word, pala, actually occurs twice in the Scripture. “’Is,’ that's the word pala, anything too ‘hard,’ once again, it's pala, for the Lord?” Two times in this Scripture, God uses this wonderful word, meaning extraordinary and astonishing and miraculous and wonderful.

There's another very interesting part of this passage here. It goes on to say, after God said that, He goes on to say: “At the time appointed, I will return unto thee, according to the TIME OF LIFE, and Sarah shall have a son.” That phrase also occurs two times in this passage: “I will return to you, according to the time of life” (verses 10 and 14).

Have you ever noticed that phrase in the Bible? It also occurs in another passage too, in the Bible (2 Kings 4;17). The “time of life” is a very powerful time in our lives as mothers in our childbearing years, because every month, we have a time of life. It is the time of ovulation, those few days in the month when we are able to conceive, when we are fertile, when we're going through ovulation.

This is our time in the month when God can visit us and give us conception. I think I have shared with you how God speaks about conception as a visitation from God. Here God is saying, “I'm going to return to you at the time of life.”

I believe this was the amazing miracle that God did for Sarah, that He restored to her the womanly cycle. She began to cycle again. She was well past menopause, but God miraculously returned her cycle, which means that she would even begin to look younger. She would be even more enticing to her husband.

Once again, she is having this monthly cycle, and there, in the middle of that cycle, is the time of visitation, the time of life when God could come and visit her and give her that miracle of conception.

The time of life is something that we have to look at seriously, ladies, because it's part of the way God created us as women. It's something that is very, very precious to God, because He created us to have this time of life, the time when He could come, if it is His will, and give us conception.

He doesn't come every month, or every time we are fertile. He comes when He knows that He wants to bring us conception. So, we need to always be open to God. It's meant to be a time of life, not a time of death.

Many women want to close up this time of life. They don't want God to come near them and visit them. They don't want conception, so they do everything in their power, with contraception, or maybe even sterilization, to stop God coming to them at that time of life.

God wants us to be open. The most beautiful thing we can ever do in our lives is being totally yielded to the sovereign will of God, because then we know we are in His perfect will. He may not give us conception—we are in His will. Or He will give us conception—we are in His will because we are totally yielded to His sovereignty, and open to whatever He wants to do during this time of life. Isn't that wonderful?

No. 6: God works to create us

Okay now this verse also says “Marvelous” (yes, that's the wonderful word pala) are thy works.” God is also working when He is creating the baby in the womb. God is at work, ladies. Did you realize that the word for “works” is ma'aseh, and it means, “an action, an art, to labor, to make.”

It's translated “handiwork,” it's translated “workmanship,” and it's translated lots of different practical things. This word is used of people who are doing baking (the ones who bake the bread in the tabernacle). “Needlework,” four times it's translated needlework. It talks about brass-making and candle-making, and all kinds of practical things.

Here, of course, it's talking about God creating, doing His wondrous works. Oh, I love Psalm 145:9, 10: “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall praise Thee, Oh Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee.”

Now those words, “tender mercies,” are the Hebrew word racham, which I have talked to you about previously. It is a word that means “the womb.” It is used interchangeably in the Word of God about a woman's womb and also of God, speaking of God's compassion, His tender mercies. And here, here's the word! It's interesting. I'm amazed.

It says: “His tender mercies,” His womb, His motherliness is over all His works. It’s over, of course, His most greatest creation, the creation of life, for each life is made in the image of God. It's over all His works. God tenderly watches over all His works.

And all His works are to praise Him. Doesn't it say that? “All His works shall praise Him.” All of creation praises the Lord. We don't hear the sounds, well we do, we hear the sea and the breakers rolling. We hear thunder. We hear lots of sounds of creation, but we don't hear all the sounds. We don't hear the trees, we don't hear the flowers, and yet, they are all singing praise to God. He hears it, although we may not.

But it comes back to His highest creation, which are male and female, created in His image, for the highest purpose of bringing forth praise to Him. We are created in the womb, but ultimately, as we come forth, to bring praise to God. We are His work. Therefore, we should praise Him.

Therefore, we should embrace who we are. He created us female. As we embrace this, as we praise Him for it, as we function in the way that He created us, we bring praise to Him. When we reject who God created us to be, we are doing the opposite.

Let's look at Psalm 102:18. “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” There it is. Each person who is created, beginning in the womb, coming forth into the world, is created for the purpose of praising God.

Oh, lovely ladies, let's be those who show forth God's praise. It's more than just praising the Lord. No, it's talking about more than that. We are to show forth His praise. We see this in Isaiah 43:21: “This people have I formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise.”

It's a revealing of God's purpose for us in our lives. It's ultimately embracing who He created us to be as this female, feminine, nurturing, nourishing, womanly creation who is revealed in this aspect of the heart of God to the world. Just as God, racham, tenderly watches over all His works, so we tenderly watch over our children in our home. This is the anointing God has put within us. As we do this, we are showing forth His praise.

Isaiah 43:7: “I have created you for My glory.”

Then we go over to the New Testament. “We are His workmanship.” There we are again, God is working in us. We are His workmanship that began in the womb, as a Workman creating in the womb.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

1 Peter 2:9: “That ye should show forth,” there it is again, “that ye should show forth.” Not only sing praises but show it forth, reveal it in your lives, and embracing every way that God has created you. “That ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

I think of that Scripture in Revelation too. I just can't recall the reference at this moment, but it again says how we are created for His pleasure. He created us for His pleasure. Isn't that wonderful? Here it is. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4;11).

Let me take you to Psalm 111. Beautiful passage here about God's work. Verse two: “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious: and His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.” This is what we have been talking about, the creation of babies in the womb.

“He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion . . . The works of His Hands are verity and judgment,” and so on. Also, one of those descriptions is also the word pala, being wonderful, extraordinary, miraculous, amazing.

Okay, let's go on to the next point.

No. 7: God strongly creates us

Verse 15 now. God strongly creates us. This Scripture says: “My substance was not hid from thee.” Now the word “substance” is otsem, meaning “power, body, bones, strength, might.” God creates each baby strongly, so that when the little precious baby comes forth from that womb, it's strong enough to live in this world and face this world.

I think, especially when we have our first baby, oh, do you remember what it was like? I don't know, you may be like me, I wasn't very familiar with babies when I became a mother. There were only three children in our family, and I didn't have babies all around me. I didn't have that blessing of being brought up in a large family where babies kept coming along, and there was always a baby to love and embrace. I hadn't really had much to do with babies.

So, when this new baby was born, oh, it was so delicate! Well, it was a pretty strong baby, but I felt he was so delicate, and oh my, you are just so, oh, you're just overwhelmed at the responsibility of caring for this precious life! I do think that there's always that precariousness in those first three months as we watch over that little baby as it's getting stronger. But, it's amazing how strong they really are! They are born strong enough to grow and be part of this world.

Most translations translate that word “substance” for “bones.” Nearly every other translation says, my substance, my substance, my bones. “My bones were not hid from You.” God was there creating the bones. Isn't that amazing?

We looked at an earlier part of this passage, where it says, God “possessed my reins.” That was talking about the very inner being, our mind and heart and soul. God was in the womb from conception, even working in this part of our being.

But now it's talking about the physical, how He creates the bones. A couple of translations say: “My frame.” You were working on my frame. But most use “My bones.”

Now, isn't this interesting too, ladies, that right from the very beginning, God is creating the male and the female differently. We talked about this last week, how the baby is, from the very beginning, determination. It's called that. It's the determination, right from the very beginning, at conception, determination determines whether the embryo will be male or female, right from that beginning.

All this crazy junk of what's happening in our society today, and this push to transgender, and the weakening of how God created us to be male and female, is an attack of the enemy, and to God, our Creator.

Right in the womb, God determines the sex, male or female. He begins, right in the very beginning, He begins to create the bones of the male baby, of the little boy baby, stronger. Boys come forth from the womb having stronger bones, denser bones. They have stronger tendons, and stronger ligaments. They have more muscle mass, which is a result of testosterone.

Yes, it's interesting, even though the male has stronger bones, the female, she doesn't have as strong bones, but she produces more antibodies, and at a quicker rate than men, and has more white blood cells. For this reason, she will, as she comes forth, get fewer infectious diseases. Plus, if there is any problem, perhaps at birth, a female will be more likely to survive than a male. That's very interesting, isn't it?

God created the male to be strong physically. He needs to be strong to carry weights and to physically work hard and to go out and be the provider and the hunter. That's who he is. And yet, the woman isn't created like that. God put a different strength in her. She has an ability to resist infection. Of course, she can still get sick, but somehow she will survive more ably.

I think God created her to be like that, because the mother in the home, she often, as you know, I'm sure, precious mother, that you have to just keep going. Even when you're sick, you can't go to bed, and think, “Forget everybody, I'm sick, poor me!” No, you keep going. Somehow, you do keep going, and you get through, and you survive.

But men, when they get sick, oh, when they even get a cold, you know what it's like! Oh my, they're wiped out! That's just too much for them. God created us differently!

Anyway, time has gone! We'll talk more about it next week.

“Father, we do thank You so much for all this wonderful description, and how You show us how You're so personally involved in our creation, and the creation of our precious children that You give to us. We bless Your Wonderful Name, and thank You and praise You, and ask that You will help us to daily show forth Your praise in our lives and in our homes. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”