2017 Theme Verse Meditation

I remember seeing the ultrasound. In fact, we still have it – on an “antique” VHS tape! As a 25 year-old first time dad it was incredible. “That’s our child!” (We asked not to know if the image showed a boy or a girl…or else I would’ve thought, “That’s our daughter!”). I can only imagine what the ancients would’ve thought or how they would’ve reacted to seeing an ultrasound.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have been on quite the same level as receiving a message via an angel, yet I imagine it would’ve been reassuring to Joseph and Mary if they could’ve seen an ultrasound administered by a compassionate technician who would’ve joined in their celebration of a new life—no matter what their story and without passing any kind of judgment regarding this unexpected, unplanned for pregnancy.

What would they have thought to hear their Savior’s strong little heartbeat? Or to see their Savior’s tiny little fingers and toes? Might they have exclaimed “Awwwww!” as they watched him surprisingly suck his itty-bitty thumb?

Seeing an ultrasound is like looking through a picture window into a mother’s womb. It provides a front row seat to the miracle of every human life knit together in a mother’s womb, not just our Messiah’s!

Imagine more mothers in the Milwaukee area having the opportunity to see that miracle firsthand before a visit to Planned Parenthood. Imagine more mothers being stirred to make a choice for life when love is born in the midst of that first lingering gaze - “That’s my child!” Imagine more mothers being moved sometimes to make a difficult but decidedly heroic choice to make an adoption plan when even in the midst of their trauma they realize, “That child has a right to live and be loved just like me.”

That’s why WELS Lutherans for Life has been committed to protecting a child’s right to live and be loved for the past 35 years. And it’s why Psalm 139:13 is a powerful theme verse for this anniversary year. It’s a year in which we are asking God to move the hearts of his people to pray and give more as we take the necessary steps to become a medical clinic so that we will soon be able to offer on-site limited ultrasound.

Like seeing an ultrasound, Psalm 139:13 gives us a window into a mother’s womb. In poetically descriptive terms, the message couldn’t be any clearer. Who was it there in the womb—yet unborn and not yet fully formed? “Me” says the Psalmist. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

This is an incredible thought, isn’t it? Already in my mother's womb I was a unique, special, dearly loved creation of God. You were too. You still are! For this reason, Jesus willingly left behind the bliss of heaven and took on our human flesh and blood in that very moment when a single cell was knit together by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. Jesus valued my life, your life, every single human life that much. Ultimately, he proved just how much God values each of us when he died for us all on the cross that we might all live forever with him in heaven. To live and be loved…that is what God wants for us all, to live forever and be loved by him. 

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Guest Author: Ben Kuerth

Ben is pastor at Victory of the Lamb in Franklin, WI. He also serves on the WELS Lutherans for Life Board of Directors.

image provided by Naomi Scheel (for more click here to see Naomi Scheel on Etsy)