Just How Old Are We, Anyways?

+JMJ+

May the Word of the Lord be in our mind, on our lips, and in our hearts. 

Come Holy Spirit....

Greetings to one and all. I apologize for the length of time between entries, I can only post when I feel guided to do so and feel spiritually ready for something to come out. So here we are, again, and praise the Lord for that!


"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

These words do not just apply to the prophet Jeremiah. If God knew Jeremiah before he was even formed in the womb, it stands to reason He knows everybody before they are even formed in our mother's womb. And so this divine insight was placed into sacred scripture for all of our benefits. But what does it truly mean for us?

God showed me something recently that then hearkened back to one of the insights I was shown as a child, but which never made sense until now. (Why God shows someone as unworthy as me anything shows how loving God truly is, and how He uses the least among us for His purposes. Praise Him and His Grace, always!) What follows is how it all ties in to God's words to Jeremiah.

I remember being told as a child that heaven is full of souls waiting to be placed into bodies on earth. When someone is created, they are given one of those souls. This would explain what God means in this verse. After all, how could God possibly know us before we are even conceived on earth? That can only happen if our souls are not initially created at conception, but were created and in existence with God even before then, and then were placed into our soon-to-be bodies at the very moment of conception.  "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you."

The overwhelming message in scripture, is that our bodies are nothing more than a vessel for our souls. Our bodies are a temple (1 Cor. 6:19-20 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?") But we are not our bodies. We are not of this world, just as Jesus was and is not of this world. We are our souls. That's why our bodies do not go to heaven when we die. Only our souls do. 

Some often say, "Since our bodies are temples, we should take good care of them." I do not disagree with this assessment. However, what about those born with birth defects, those who are crippled, those who cannot have what society considers a "perfect body?" Are they any less of a vessel for their souls, the same soul that God knew beforehand? No! Of course not. Our defects are the result of genetics. Our bodies are know by God, to the point of knowing the number of hairs on our heads, but what our body looks like and functions is created by genetics or perhaps other external factors, such as drug or tobacco use by our mothers, or even an accident or exposure to certain chemicals.

What about those who conceived via evil means, such as rape, incest, or via sin such as pre-marital or extra-marital sex? The means of creation is irrelevant to the value of our souls. 

And therein lies the real truth of the verse in Jeremiah.

What our bodies are, or under what circumstances our bodies are conceived, is immaterial to our inherent value as human beings. Why would God ever put a soul into a body that genetically has physical or mental or emotional challenges? Because His glory can be shown via those vessels, and His mercy and grace can be shown via how we treat those persons. Everyone has a different sized cross to bear, some are simply heavier than others (but all are lighter than the Cross that Christ bore for us. We sometimes forget that, myself included.)

What important is the condition of our soul when our bodies die. Not how our bodies came to be, not what challenges we face physically or mentally, but the condition of the only part of us that matters at the end, our soul. The same soul that started in heaven. Whether it ends in heaven is up to us and our choices during our worldly life.

This is why abortion is so immoral. We are human beings from the start. God places our souls that existed before our formation into us at formation, and by snuffing out that vessel for the soul prematurely, we are interfering with God's plan for that soul. Just like we do when we murder someone after they are born, we are playing God and prematurely ending the journey of that soul before God was done with it. Whether it is inside our outside of the womb, the end result is identical. The end result is exactly the same. A premature and artificial end to the life process, and the journey of that soul that God places within each of us.

So, what does this say about our inherent value? It proves that no matter the circumstances our our physical creation, we are valuable and loved by God. We are our souls and our souls are us. The physical creation of our bodies, or the physical situation our bodies are in, are not important. It doesn't mean we are evil or more sinful than others. It doesn't mean we are less than anyone else. God knew us and loved us before He formed us in our mother's womb, and He loves us with the same fervor after our creation in the womb, and after our birth. Our inherent value does not change one iota based on whatever physical circumstances there were.

Our physical journey is so short relative to the greater journey of our souls, words could not adequately describe it. A blink of God's divine eye would probably takes several times longer than our physical existence relative to the existence of our soul. God knew us for eons before our birth, we live our lives, however long they may be, and, based on our choices during this life, our soul continues for all eternity either back in Heaven, alongside God where we started, or Hell, separated from God by our choice. That's why when making choices we should remember that we'll be physically dead far longer than we'll be alive, and we'd better prepare our souls for where we'll be spending eternity, as a result, and not worry about worldly things, so much.

We are eternal beings, because we are our souls. Before, during, and after our earthly existence. What happens in this world is not as important is it seems, for it is fleeting. And Christ overcame this world for us and our souls, we must only follow Him to also overcome this world.

I know of people who mistaken think our bodies are God, or our brains. This is close to heresy. God is god, Christ is Christ, They do not need us in order to exist, but they want us to exist with them out of their love for us.  Unworthy as we are. They want us to spend eternity with them because they love us and have literally known us (our souls) forever, despite not having any actual need for us to further their own divine existence. Now THAT is unconditional love. And that love started with the formation of our souls long, long before we were ever formed in our mother's womb. Praise be to God.

Godspeed and God bless.