Pastors Note

 What is your earliest recollection of hearing? When did you, as a human being, first start hearing things?

What is hearing? According to an article in the National Institute of Health, (NIH. How do we hear) hearing is “a series of complex steps that change sound waves in the air into electrical signals.” Then this article went on to outline the six major steps for how this all happens; they even supplied a great video to help make sense of this complicated process. 

Here is where my brain chimes in, “I thought hearing was a rather mundane function; hmm, guess not. It’s pretty amazing - rather complicated!” This brings us back to that great passage on the human frame that says we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and “knit together” (Psalm 139:13-16) by God Himself. 

Psalm 139:13-16

New International Version

13 For you [God] created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

15 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.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

When did you first begin to hear? Once your mother and father conceived you, somewhere around the six week marker, your body’s cells, in the area dedicated to your head,  begin to arrange themselves in a pattern that will eventually be the brain, face, ears and eyes. At nine weeks small indentations are made by God on your neck. They will eventually migrate up to the side of your head but right now these “dents” are on your neck and will eventually form into your ears. God is incredibly creative in how He does all of this. 

At that six week marker, there is development of the intricate arrangement of tubes that make up the inner ear.

When a baby is 16 weeks old in the womb, the ears are at a point where the baby can start detecting a few sounds such as the beating of the mother’s heart, her breathing and even her intestinal gurgles. At 24 weeks, the child’s ears are fully developed. Research has made us aware that babies will turn their heads because of certain voices and sounds.

Why does this all matter? Two reasons: one, God is amazing and He displays His wisdom and engineering of the human body: what we know as biology. The second reason is personal to the Christmas story. Mary, the virgin pledged to be married to Joseph, is now pregnant with Jesus in her womb. She visits her cousin Elizabeth after travelling from Nazareth. When Mary sounds her arrival at Elizabeth’s abode, the baby (John the Baptist) in Elizabeth’s womb hears and leaps for joy.

 In those days [when Elizabeth was six months pregnant or 26 weeks along] Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:39-44)

This is one of those instances where God clearly relates to us what we humans have discovered through science in the last 100 years or so - the intricate nature of hearing and the age at which hearing forms. God wrote science into this chapter of His Book, the Bible. Luke records these facts which are scientifically verified. God and science are in agreement but our world likes to think that belief in God negates a belief in science. Nothing could be further from the truth! Luke’s account in Luke one matches the science of hearing.

What did Elizabeth hear and what did the baby John acknowledge? What they reveal is astounding: the Savior Jesus is inches away. Jesus is very near. 

THis does several things for us as modern Americans. It validates the concept and truth of life in vitro. Both babies would be called “fetuses” in our culture. OK. But they are viable lives that God clearly has brought into existence. Life is God’s to give and life must not be taken lightly or destroyed if the shelf life doesn’t match our views, our compliance standards or our comfort level. Life begins at conception and God’s people MUST NOT grow shy of proclaiming this truth. Jesus did not become viable as the Savior once He was born. He did not become the Savior once He crossed the 21 week mark. Baby Jesus was just days or weeks old yet Elizabeth says these words about the baby: 

she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:42-44)

The fruit of Mary’s womb is the Savior of the world despite His youthfulness. The baby in Elizabeth’s womb could acknowledge the presence of Jesus his Savior. Such is the wisdom of God. May we also acknowledge the Savior in Mary’s womb who grew to be birthed for us, to be cradled on straw, to be sentenced under the weight of humanity’s sin so that we could all go free. One day old or 33 years old, this child IS the Savior of the World. He is my Savior and will always be. Praise the Lord.