Do you like to celebrate birthdays? Every year, you grow bigger, stronger, and smarter, don't you? Did you know that you played and smiled, grew and lived, even before your birth? God made you special. God knew all about you--even before your birth!

___________________________________________________________________________

God's Word says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart..."(Jeremiah 1:5) ____________________________________________________________________________

Let's get personal about this. Here are the facts: Everyone, even Jesus in human form, took shape inside his or her mother's body. You start life as a tiny cell, smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. How are you made?

You grow inside your mother's uterus, or womb. It is soft and stretchy, like living inside a balloon. The womb is a warm, comfortable home for you, filled with a watery wetness called amniotic fluid.

__________________________________________________________________________

Job, in the Bible, said to God: "Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity..."(Job 10:8) ___________________________________________________________________________

You are alive! You are human! From your very beginning, God gave you a genetic code. The code tells your body how to develop into a unique person. No one else is exactly like you. You have a special purpose, and God has a wonderful plan for you.

Boy or girl, black hair or blonde, eyes of blue, brown or green, even whether you like science, soccer or art--all is according to God's plan.

____________________________________________________________________________

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; The fruit of the womb is a reward."(Psalm 127:3) ____________________________________________________________________________

Your single cell split into two cells, then four, then eight. Grow, child, grow! After three weeks, you are still only about the size of a freckle or mole, or one tenth of an inch long. However, you already show the beginnings of your eyes, brain, lungs, stomach, and other important body organs. Your heart is now beating regularly. It actually begins to beat on and off as early as your eighteenth day. Your air, food and water travels to you from your mother's blood through a tube called the umbilical cord. One end of the tube is inside the uterus; the other end is attached to the middle of your body. That's where your belly button is, after you're born. The uterus gets bigger as you grow. So will your mother's belly! What do you think happens next?

___________________________________________________________________________

Job said to God: "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?"(Job 10:10-11) ____________________________________________________________________________

Now your mouth, arms, ears, nose, fingers and toes are forming! A week later, you are still only one-half inch long. That's about the size of an adult person's fingernail! Your baby teeth begin to grow in your mouth. (Of course, they won't break through your gums, until you need them to eat!) You can wiggle your body. Your mother might not feel you move for another twelve weeks. You are still too little.

At six weeks your brain waves can be measured with special instruments. Brain waves show the doctor that your brain is growing the way it should. Your brain tells your body what to do. What are you thinking about? You can't tell anyone, but God knows. Now your skeleton (or frame) is complete. It is made of cartilage (a soft, elastic-like substance). Later, it will harden into bones.

____________________________________________________________________________

God's Bible says that: "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place..."(Psalm 139:15) ____________________________________________________________________________

Now you have been living for seven weeks. How big do you think you are now? You are still only about an inch long--the size of an older child's little toe. Your heart is pumping blood made by your own body. Of course, you may have a different type of blood than your mother. Now your private parts, your male or female organs, are developing. All is proceeding according to God's plan, in your genetic code.

____________________________________________________________________________

We can say to God: "I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."(Psalm 139:14) ____________________________________________________________________________

After two months, a doctor can listen to your heartbeat in his office with an ordinary instrument. Perhaps your mother visits the doctor. The doctor carefully places a machine called an ultrasonic stethoscope on your mother's belly. What is that fast tapping sound? Pit-a-pat! Pit-a-pat!! It is your heartbeat! Your mother laughs with joy!

By nine or ten weeks, you choose your own rhythm of naps and play. Your eyelids, mouth and hands are sensitive to touch. You can feel! Slurp, slurp, slurp! You may be sucking your thumb. You are still only an inch and a half long. You can open or close your mouth. You have tiny, perfect nails and fingerprints.

A week later you are two inches long. You can swim like a fish! I'll bet you're having fun!

Your kidneys make urine. Luckily, the water in your mother's uterus is changed often. Your urine and waste travel out of the womb through your mother's bloodstream and out through her kidneys.

At twelve weeks you can smile, frown and make funny faces. Is something funny, or are you just exercising your face?

From now on, you mainly just get bigger and more developed. After 4 months, you are over 6 inches long. One day, you kick and squirm, and your mom laughs, surprised. "Oooh!" she cries. "I felt my baby for the first time!" You can't hear your mother yet. But you're finally getting her attention!

____________________________________________________________________________

Job said to God: "...your eyes saw my unformed body..."(Psalm 139:16) ____________________________________________________________________________

Your chest muscles move, as if you are breathing. You must learn to breathe, before you are born. Now your ears hear your mother's voice, and listen in wonder. Be careful what you say, Mom! Perhaps you gulp your first drink of water, that you are swimming in. You hiccup, and hiccup, and hiccup...for half an hour! "Go to sleep, baby," soothes your mom.

___________________________________________________________________________

Can you hear God's voice? God's Word says: "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit."(Luke 1:41) ____________________________________________________________________________

Six months ago, your life began. Today, you are 12 inches long, about as long as a big man's foot. Your sweet eyes open. If your mother sunbathes at the beach, you can see a red glow in your warm, dark womb. Your hands cover your eyes, to shield them from the light.

You are mainly just getting fatter now, so you can keep warm after your birth. Now your chubby body can't swim anymore, or even wiggle much. It's too crowded in the womb! You're almost too big for it now. What do you think will happen next?

Your mother's womb always feels the same: soft, wet and warm. You snuggle close and listen to your mother's heart beat. It lulls you to sleep. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

Outside, the weather changes. Hot, warm, cold; Three seasons have come and gone. Now you have been living for nine months. Time to be born! You feel a very tight hug, and you shut your eyes to the blinding bright lights. Finally, your eyes peek open. Then--very fuzzily--you see your mother's face!

Even after you are born, you are still incomplete. You grow from a baby into a little boy or girl, into a teenager, then into a man or woman. Even adults experience change as they grow older. Life is a process of growing and changing.

____________________________________________________________________________

God says that:

"...All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."(Psalm 139:16) ____________________________________________________________________________

*Abortion is the killing of an unborn child.

Why would anyone want to do such a thing?

*Sin causes death. When Adam and Eve sinned, death came into the world. Satan came to kill and destroy human beings--including children. Abortion of unborn children is one result when people disobey God. ___________________________________________________________________________

"The wages of sin is death." (Romans 3:23) ____________________________________________________________________________

*First, remember that YOU didn't cause the problem. Abortion has been in the world for thousands of years. However, you CAN make a difference.

*Share this book with your friends and family. Talk about the value of life--at home, school, church, or other activities. Write or call your elected officials to make your views known. You can ask your parents or teachers to help.

*Look closely at the facts regarding preborn human beings. Surely, unborn children should receive at least the same attention as causes such as saving whales or trees. You can find books at the library. There are excellent videos about the way babies develop in the womb. Also, your local pro-life organization has booklets to teach about life. You can leave tracts in a doctor's office, at schools or other public places where people want something to read.

*Find out about places in your area that help unmarried mothers and unborn babies. Ask your parents if you can volunteer. You may enjoy painting or cleaning, or perhaps putting letters in envelopes. You may be able to help take care of babies. If everyone helps a little, all the work gets done.

*Remember that God hates sin, but loves the sinner. Have you asked Jesus to come into your heart? You can ask him right now. Tell him you are sorry for all the bad things you have done. Ask him to forgive you, and live in your heart. He will. You can make Jesus your best friend!

___________________________________________________________________________

"...for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

"...the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

"Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?" (Proverbs 24:11) ____________________________________________________________________________

Copyright 1997, 1998, Melissa L. Morgan; http://wise.home.ml.org

Illustrated Bible Studies......Seeds Home Page......Free Tract Page.......Browser Tracts......Jumpstart Bible Studies.....Friends Home Page......John 3:16 page.....Jesus Cards Page......List of Cristian Tract Publishers.....Our Favorite Links......Internationsal Tracts Page