Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.Jeremiah 1:5 NIV
This verse is often used in debates about abortion and God’s election. But more significant than either of those issues is what it says to us about God. Before I was even conceived, God knew me. He did not just know about me. He knew me in a personal way. The Hebrew word translated as “knew” is the same word used in Genesis 4:1, where Adam “made love” to his wife.
I do not mean to suggest that I had existed prior to my conception. But God had an intimate knowledge of me and who I would become long before I was conceived in my mother’s womb. His knowledge of me is not something that he gains as he watches me grow and live. But he knows everything there is to know about me. And did even before I came to exist. And he still loves me. That boggles my mind.
Unlike Jeremiah, God did not set me apart and appoint me to be a prophet to…
