July 17, 2003

•  It’s a happy birth-day.

  
  

  On the Tuesday morning of July 17, 1979, a little girl was born.  Unlike the usual unabashed joy of such a momentous occasion, this particular birth was hampered by the observation that there was a bit of abnormalcy.   It was found that this newborn had a hollow cavity between her mouth and nasal passageway – there was no palate!  She also had a cleft on her upper lip that connected to this open cavity.  The doctors labeled this rare deformity as a “cleft/palate.”  After three surgeries and an ample supply of deft skill, everything was sewed up, and it was proclaimed that little Mary Ann would be able to live a normal life.  “Normal” – apart from the stigma of having been born with a birth defect, which only God’s big eraser years later could delete the evils of the mockery from her early childhood and replace such pain with the fullness of His complete love.

  
  

  It was not an accident.  There have been many years of agonizing over the stigma of being a defect, of being a manufacturing boo-boo, of being not what is normal and right.  But it was not an accident.

  
  

  God’s timing is impeccable.  What if I had been born just a little earlier?  It could’ve happened on the plane, in Thailand, in the boat, or in a village of Vietnam — for right before my birth, my parents were en route from Vietnam to America.  In any of those places, there would not have been the expert physicians as found in America to fix the problem. Would I have survived?  Or would I have breathed my last breath shortly after my birth?  God saved my life just when it was beginning.

  
  

  But even before my birth, He had made a decision.  While I was in my mother’s womb, He put His finger on my mouth and said, “There now, I will put this mark on her.  My stamp – the one which says that she belongs to Me, and one day she will recognize Me.”  For it was as a result of the heartache and agony and depression that I experienced from my birth defect – the loneliness, the alienation, the feeling of being ugly and worthless, and empty and invalid – that brought me to my knees in understanding my need for my Creator.  Honestly, if I had not been born with this defect, I would’ve never cried out to Him.

  
  

  The mark of defamation is actually a mark of love.  My birth was not an accident in any way, shape or form.  “For You created my inmost being:  you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-14).  This means that I am wonderful.  I am wonderful because God, the King of the Universe, made me.  You are wonderful too because He made you.

  
  

  Thank you, Jesus, for choosing to give life. 

  • 12:50 pm
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