birthday

Today is my 36th birthday (sounds old!).

I've been trying to reflect on my life to this point, trying to hear God's whispers of love that hovered over me and knit me together in my mother's womb and echo to this day.

Psalm 139:13-16 NIV
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 in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Here is how The Message puts it (thanks Gene!)

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.

Much of my life I have cursed and regretted the day of my birth. God is leading me to a place where I am actually thankful for it. That's grace.