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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Beginning and End (04/16/09)
From the Womb to the Book of Life (From the Beginning to the End)

Jeremiah 1:5 a “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” NAS

Revelation 20:15 “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” NAS

These two verses seem to sit as a set of bookends around our life.
Here we are at the beginning of the story. In Jeremiah, God is telling us that He knew us before we were born. To know a person, indicates knowledge of and or some level of a relationship. Since God is our creator, we can assume that He knows everything about our genetic make-up, our earthly lives, and temperament of our heart. His relationship with us has started before we are out of the womb! Before we began our life, He knows us. He knows all of our sin, all of our sorrows, all of frailties as we live our lives here on earth. This I find as the greatest comfort of all. God knew all those awful things I was going to do, say, think, and write and still he wanted me. He allowed me to be born and died on the cross in the greatest act of love I will ever know. What a comfort! My self-esteem is growing more solid by the moment as I absorb exactly what this means.

Recently I went to the Humane Society to adopt a dog. There was the cutest dog, a cross between Foxhound and Lab. This poor little guy had been in different facilities for over a year. They told me he wasn’t quite potty trained at age seven! I had a hard time believing it was true. They said otherwise he was great with kids, doesn’t bite etc.
It turned out there was much more to this dog than they let on or knew. He did not lay down at night time, constantly pacing the room, he barked non stop, and they were right about the part of not being potty trained. He completely wrecked every area of the barn bathroom.
The next day, in early evening he escaped and was caught three different times. Each person was completely frustrated with his non-stop barking and pacing so they passed him onto a more compassionate animal friendly neighbor. The last of the compassionate animal friendly neighbors he bite in an area we cannot mention. Yes, I knew this dog had problems, but really life outside the kennel just frightened him too much. We declined in continuing to be his new home.
I am not proud how easily I gave up on that dog. Thank goodness, that God does not give up on us that easily.
Christ knew everything about us and still wanted us and allowed us to be born. Then on top of that He gave His life over to death for us.

So here we are living outside the kennel free to roam around and live our life. But a warning label did come from our Savior.


Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.” NAS

Wow, this God that loved us so tenderly in the womb knew that we would face trials, hatred and temptation. But He knew that specifically for following Him we would be hated. His compassion covered it all from the womb to living to death! From the beginning to the end!
Today, two things are evident:
1. There is an overall growing hatred toward the body of Christ.
2. People over all are becoming less and less able to wait for delayed gratification.

So we must teach our children to endure and wait for the great day when all the heavens will rejoice as our name is read out of the great book of life.

Like any journey there is a beginning and an end, there will be bumps on the road, people we meet that want to get us out of there site and pass us along to the next willing neighbor that will tolerate us. But there is one God who wants us no matter how much we bark, bite and make a mess out of life. He knew us before we were born and is waiting for us on His great white throne!
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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This article has been read 634 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Patricia Herchenroether
04/25/09
Loved the beginning of your entry and the Bible reference, but it didn't exactly flow smoothly into the rest of the story.
I got a little lost somewhere along the line, and couldn't quite correlate the "book of life" to anything.
Keep writing-you're doing well!
Linda Payne
04/27/09
You seem to have several different themes going on here, all of which could be developed independently. You have some great descriptions; I especially liked the paragraph about the dog. Keep writing!
Loren T. Lowery
04/27/09
A great comfort, indeed. Your comparison of how differently God sees and treats us in contrast to the dog, made your insights much easier to see and understand.
Deborah Porter 
05/07/09
Hi Mary. I’m running a little late this week, but just wanted to leave a quick note to let you know your entry, From Womb to the Book of Life, actually did very well in the Beginning and End Challenge. Although you didn't receive an award, you made it into the Highest Rankings for Level 1, placing 13th in that Level.

There were a lot of entries this week, and competition in Level 1 is always very intense, so well done.

If you'd like to check the highest rankings for yourself, you can find them here:
http://www.faithwriters.com/Boards/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=25380

The highest rankings are posted every Thursday evening on the Message Boards.
Again, well done. :-)

Hope to see you at the FaithWriters' Conference in August.

With love, Deb (Challenge Coordinator)