Picture This!

There are many times I think the word “progress” is a misnomer. The dictionary defines “progress” as meaning continuous improvement, advancement, or development. It has a definite positive implication. However, sometimes things are not improved or positively changed even though they go under the guise of progress. I could name several things, but one of the things that brings out my grouchiest side is Office 2007. I don’t think it was progress at all, but rather regress. I know, some people really like it, but me, not so much! (Also, I have wondered why groups go on a retreat—isn’t that moving backwards and giving up?)

Anyway, today I experienced a bit of progress in medical science that really seems like it is progress. Let me explain by noting Psalm 139:13-15 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together...”
Today I saw some 4-D pictures of my unborn grandson. Wow! He really looks like a baby. I could see his eyes, nose, mouth, and fingers. It was amazing! When the psalmist said that a baby’s frame was not hidden from God, I always believed that to be true; but now, the baby that is not hidden from God is not hidden from us either. We still are completely dependent upon God’s handiwork to finish the job with the little guy for we can’t do any of that work; but, nevertheless, we could see him.

I wonder if God let us develop that technology to give us a glimpse of what He sees. There has been a big brouhaha in the courts over when life begins and when a baby becomes a baby. It seems to be one of the big three tenets dividing people in our nation. Perhaps God wanted to show us how ludicrous it was to think that life doesn’t begin until birth. Every woman who has carried a baby in the last few months of a pregnancy knows that the child is alive and kicking and rolling and jabbing. Ouch!

There may well be groups who would like to ignore or repudiate this particular progress because it shows that it’s not a mass of goo! It’s a baby!

(In this case, a really cute baby, of course!)