Known By God

I will admit that I have a growing fascination with other languages. Maybe it's because of the exposure I have had to several now, or maybe it's the fact that my eyes are being opened to a depth in the meaning of words in other languages. For instance, in English, we have one word for love, while the Greek language has several words to convey different types of love.
The word that I have been chewing on for a year now is Nolwazi, a Siswati word meaning "God has known her from the womb". I first encountered this word when a young girl that I met last year in Swaziland named her daughter this. God has known her from the womb....this young baby was born as a product of incest and rape, and is destined to live a tough life in Swaziland...yet God has known her from the womb.I have been thinking about it lately, because my new nephew was (finally) born this week, after months of anticipation, and a couple of weeks of impatient waiting! As I have prayed for this little one, I have been overcome by the fact that God has known him from the womb. I love how Psalm 139 reminds us that even before we are born, God has ordained every one of our days! As I have been working on a blanket for my nephew, I was reminded of how the Psalmist continues to talk about the fact that God knit our parts together in our mother's womb. God knows the passions & dreams He will put on my nephews heart; God knows the ways He has wired my new nephew to bring Him glory & tell people about Him!And I am humbled and amazed by this even more today, as I celebrate my own birthday - that 31 years ago, when I was in my mother's womb and my parents were anticipating the birth of a 7lb baby boy, and out came a 10 lb baby girl, God knew me. He knew the unique ways He would wire me, the ways He would pursue me, the ways He would lead me through trials and hardships in order to refine me and draw me closer to Him. He knew me from the womb, knowing all of the days of my life before one of them came to be!
And still, after all of these years reflecting on this, I still am overwhelmed that God knows me. That the God who named the stars, who knows how many grains of sand are on the beaches, who knows all of history and all of the future, who made the sun rise this morning, who created gravity and DNA, who is completely perfect and holy....that God knows me.

"But whoever loves God, is known by God."
1 Corinthians 8:3