Today is my friend's due date with a child she will never hold - a child she never even saw - but a child she loved desperately. But even the children that we never get to know are intimately known by the One who formed their inmost being.
Every person conceived is completely unique, distinct from everyone else who has ever lived in the history of the world, and those who are yet to come. And yet, our Creator God never runs dry on designs, and could tell you the exact details of each and every beloved creature.
Countless families have felt the grief my friends feel today - my family included. The boys and I had a good talk last night about our baby Micah that we never got to know. We talked about how sad my friend must feel today that she doesn't get to hold the baby that she loved so much. "But mom," he exclaimed, "the good news is she's going to see that baby in heaven!" Oh, my son, that is the hope that we have. That is the hope that is unique to Christians. We have the hope of a resurrection!
But while we wait for that day when we get to meet our Micah, we recognize that his or her completely unique little life was lost - lost, but known. Known by the One who made the child. Known by the One who loved the child more than I ever could have. Known by the One who designs each human life with intent and purpose and love and His own glory embedded in the design.
Like a snowflake, each one is completely unique, distinct, stunningly beautiful, and fragile. God has never duplicated a design, and He does not simply replace one with a better one. Each is significant, each is known, and each is loved by the hands that made it.
As we look at the snow-covered hillside of lives lost before their first breath - each unique and each glorious - we awe at the beauty of His magnificent, intricate design, and wonder at His mysterious ways.
Snowflake
A blanket of snow
Widespread and untouched
Lays across the landscape
Each crystal different
Each one unique
Each beautiful and delicate
Each one known.
Every one connected to a heart
That longs
to hold it
to smell it
to feel it on fingertips
Each snowflake has a name
Fearfully and wonderfully
Designed, formed, shaped
Unhidden
Even in the secret place
You never repeat
And You never replace
Each one is a matchless marvel
Each one loved.
Your works are wonderful
And beyond tracing out
And I look at the crystal sea
Of unheld masterpieces
And wonder which one was my own.
But you know
You see
You love that exact one
I admire
Your wonderful works
And confess
From, through, and to You
Are even the snowflakes
Even my own precious one.
