Birth and Destiny

I did not choose my mother,

I did not choose my father,

I did not choose where to be born.

Nor when to be born, either.

I knew not where I had come from,

I knew not where I was going to,

I cried when I was hungry,

And where I was, I had not a clue!

I knew nothing of my conception,

Or where in Time I’d been placed,

It could have been with Abraham or David,

Or somewhere else in the whole human race!

My position in Time was ordained for me,

Not by chance, but by God, my Creator,

And this placement in Time was unique for me,

And could not have been sooner or later!

God said He had chosen us in Him,

Before the foundation of the earth,

That we should be holy and blameless in love,

Such love before our very birth!

“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee,”

He knew me before I knew him,

“I sanctified you before you came from the womb!”

Yet from that womb I was born into sin.

“Naked I came out from my mother’s womb,
And naked so shall I depart,”

The Lord God formed me from the dust of the ground,

“Unto dust you’ll return, for dust thou art!”

“God has planted Eternity in the human heart,”

We are born with a death certificate in our hand,

And there is no such thing as complete annihilation,

After death’s door, before God, we all stand.

We all shall enter Eternity

When we leave this transient earth,

At peace with God, as our loving Saviour,

Or without Him, as His salvation is spurned.

We were born into the 20th or 21st Century

In this particular period of time,

It was not earlier or later, or by man’s choosing,

But solely by God alone’s design.

“I know the plans I have for you,

To prosper you and not to harm you,” God said,

“To give you hope and a future,”

Before ever I was born! God spoke ahead!

“Set your affection on things above,

Not on things of the earth,” of this temporary life,

Our relationships, possessions and money –

Coming before God, will cause such strife.

As we stand at the climax, at the pinnacle of life,

Even now our health, matters not anymore,

We’re at the brink of the ocean of Eternity,

To shed this earthly tabernacle for that distant shore.

“Neither death, nor life, the present, nor the future,

Height nor depth, nor anything in the whole of creation,

Can separate us from the love of God,

That is in Christ Jesus, our sure foundation!

Job said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And though worms destroy my mortal body,

Yet in my flesh shall I see God!”

From despair, he looked forward, to a different story!

One day Jesus will take me into His presence,

To behold the nail-prints in His hands and His feet,

To look in His face, to see the love in His eyes,

To make my salvation to Glory complete!

He will change this vile body

To be fashioned like His,

Forsaking all Time’s pressures,

To Eternity’s life of bliss!

Peter Burt