Lillian Daniel: Eating for Two (Psalm 119:13-14)

"For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." - Psalm 139:13-14 

In the early months of pregnancy, I was ruled by appetites that were not my own. I craved things I had never craved before. I was a new person, melded with this other growing person. Suddenly weliked oranges and we hated salad dressing and we needed to build strong bones by eating ice cream every day.  

At my first pregnancy checkup, the doctor was somewhat alarmed that I had put on twenty-five pounds in such a short amount of time. She pulled out a chart to make her point.  

I was outraged. Those twenty-five pounds represented an appetite larger than myself, the raging hunger of the rapidly growing being inside me, whose nutritional needs knew no bounds. The child's needs were now my needs.  

Of those twenty-five pounds, how many of them were attached to me? And how many were attached to the child growing inside of me?  

I explained that I wasn't eating for two. I was eating for the oneness of the universe.  

"Be that as it may," the doctor said, "at this point in time, the fetus is about the size of a grain of rice."  

I wouldn't be the first mother to mistake her own desires for the needs of her child.  

The great surprise of motherhood turned out to be this. I had no idea whether my children would like oranges, salad dressing or even ice cream.   

They would turn out to have their own ideas, each one uniquely and wonderfully made. 

Prayer  

God, thank you for creating each one of us in your image, yet individual. Amen.

From UCC's StillSpeaking Devotional. Visit UCC.org