He Knew You Before...

There is a verse in the bible that has whole new meaning for me now.   

Jer 1:5  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;

When I enter into a tough time, I often pray for God to meet me there and guide me through it and then somewhere deep down in my doubter I hope that He will find the time to listen to my request.  Not anymore.  I was thinking the other day about what I fear in my future and God opened my eyes to a glimpse of His ways.

He reminded me of a time 15 years ago when I was in PT school and on my first clinical rotation.  I don’t remember much from those 8 weeks except for one very special patient.  His name was Cameron and he stole my heart.  He was a young burn patient who I had the privilege of treating.  I loved taking care of him and he really was the highlight of my first rotation.  Fast forward 10 years and I was considering a job at Shriner’s burn hospital in Galveston because of my memories from my time with Cameron and the skillset I had gained while caring for him.  I met with them but decided to stay closer to home. 

Stay with me here.

Now fast forward 5 more years and I am given a foster care child who is a burn patient.  As I was thinking on my future, the Lord laid out a timeline in my mind as to say, “15 years ago when DJs mom was only 5 years old, I was working out the plans for his life now.  He is not in your home by chance.  It is my intention and my way of meeting his needs.”  

In that moment, all of the familiar verses like “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” all took on new meaning.  The Lord isn’t joining me where I am right now! He took care of it before I even stepped foot on this planet! 

Just because our present crisis may be new to us, it did not take Him by surprise.  Even more, He is not getting to evaluating His options today to try and figure out how to help us in our mess.  No! He saw our mess before He even put us in our mother’s womb and He made a way then for us.   HE IS FOR US!  Now that does not always mean that He will rescue us completely from our affliction as we wish it were so.  He did not keep my little guy from being burned, but He did redeem it for his glory and that process started before my little guy was even in his mother’s womb.

Jer 1:5  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;…”