Not all of our births are planned by our parents. Sometimes pregnancy stuns them, as if they had nothing to do with it. Some adults will choose not to birth the child that they have been given. Others may lose patience in the heat of the moment and inform the child of their accidental existence.
How cruel to plant such cares in the mind of a child. I'm sure that there are many youth who hear these words, that they are not of the intentional offspring persuasion. It happens in moments of weakness. Sometimes, when we're weary and stress is high, we say things that we otherwise would not.
But when a child is branded with such a declaration, how are they to respond? Crying would be an appropriate response, sure. I'd have a few things to say on the matter, like asking how such an 'accident' occurred. Was a slippery floor, or an unsteady ladder involved? If only a child could know from birth, that there was meaning in their creation. That streams of questions would flow from their lips, drowning out all foolish doubt.
Like was I the same kind of accident as the honey bee? The only insect that provides man with food, whose buzz is the song of their wings, flapping up to two hundred times every second.
Was I a more mysterious accident than the collisions between solar winds and Earth's magnetic field? The ones behind the Northern Lights, creating the spectacular hues that shroud the night sky?
Or a bigger accident than say, the sound of birdsong? Or the colour of a peacock feather, that no artist has ever quite rendered just?
Was I less of an accident than the pearl of the oyster? Formed in meticulous fashion to protect from foreign matter. The same pearls that are then harvested and sold for fortunes, all because of the oyster's innate response to a grain of sand.
Different to the accidental golds seen in Sunflowers by Van Gogh? The ones that he painted for Gauguin one hundred years before my birth, with his accidental talent. "To get up enough heat to melt those golds...it's not everyone that can do it, it takes the energy and concentration of a person's whole being.." Van Gogh wrote.
Kind of like the chemical reaction that sees that glow worms glow? Or the reflection and refraction of light in water that paints a rainbow in the sky? How about the algae that lives in the lake and dyes it pink?
Was I a puzzling accident, like the English alphabet and what was to become when William Shakespeare got the hang of it? Or the fact that there are more stars in the skies than all of the words ever to be uttered?
Is there a chance though that there is some truth hiding behind those four words, 'you were an accident'? I don't know...maybe.
Just kidding, of course there isn't. Even if our parents didn't plan for our existence, God did. He makes no mistakes and He makes this known throughout the scriptures.
God planned our creation with love and care
Even if our parents didn't carefully plan out our creation, God did. He orchestrated our entire existence. It was Him who created us in the womb and it was Him who made us in His image. Before we were even conceived, the Lord had planned for us. He had already planned when, where and to who we were to be born. He had already ordained the number of days that we were to walk the earth. We were of no surprise to Him, for we were in His hands long before our parents held us for the first time.
"Thus says the Lord who made you,who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant,Jeshurun whom I have chosen," (Isaiah 44:2).
"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" (Psalm 139:13-16).
He knew that as Christians, we would hear the gospel and believe, according to His grace.
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love" (Ephesians 1 : 4).
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).
It is Him who made the Earth and everything on it. It is Him who wills for us to take each and every breath.
"Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it" (Isaiah 42:5).
Nowhere does it mention accidents. He is of course the Creator of the Universe, and not some scatter brained mess who can't quite keep track of things.
So! Let us be well fed and rested, that we may never say anything quite so stupid to one placed here by the hand of God.
Scarlett Jones resides by the seaside and loves reading, films, craft and quality time with friends and family.
Scarlett Jones' previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/scarlett-jones.html