Sonograms and Monograms
When Was It Written
With just a few weeks left before their third child was to be born, Kevin & Traci Wood (our pastor and his wife) still had not figured out a name for their child. This article was written on July 1, 2007, barely 3 weeks before the little boy was born.
Who Wrote It
Kevin Wood, Pastor
Sonograms and Monograms
Most of you already know that Traci and I are about to have a new baby join our family. What many of you might not know is that we still haven’t settled on a name. And by the way, we are about 3 weeks and counting from our own personal “labor day”. Traci has a name she likes, which I’m not really allowed to share here in case it doesn’t come to be, but I just haven’t heard the right one yet. The issue came to a head the other night when Traci went to have some baby blankets and pillow cases monogrammed for the little guy. She asked if she could just go ahead and get the name she likes monogrammed onto the items. In typical stubborn fashion, I said, “Not yet.” She did it anyway. Gotta love a girl with spunk.
Then on Thursday of this past week, I went with Traci to have our final sonogram done. This wasn’t one of the new 3-D sonograms where features of the child’s face are easily seen. This was an old school sonogram. The nurse showed us blurry images of his head, his feet, his arms, and his torso, pointing out each feature with her little green mouse button. I just nodded my head and said, “Oh yeah, I see it.” I was lying. I really couldn’t make out anything at all. So here I am looking at fuzzy pictures of what is supposed to be my newest son, a son I have yet to name, and I have a nurse telling me she can see everything crystal clear. It was at that point that we would have just decided to do the new 3-D sonograms so I didn’t have to feel guilty about lying to the nurse or about not having a name for my child.
The whole experience though reminded me of some very powerful verses, like Psalm 139 (too long to list here). It also reminded me of Jeremiah 1:5. In that passage, God says “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (NIV). The Message Bible says it like this, “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you.” That word “know” in the Hebrew meant to “know deeply or experientially.” I kind of like that thought, the idea that God knows all about us – every detail – from the number of hairs on our head to the deepest frustration of our heart. And he knows all the details about the little boy who’s about to enter my world. He knows what his favorite food will be. He knows what color he’ll like the most. He knows his greatest fear and he knows his deepest joy. He knows his name – first, middle, and last. I’m even smart enough to know what his last name will be. The reason these verses hit me so hard as I looked up at the sonogram and thought about the monogram, is that I understood for the first time in a good, long while this truth – if I want to know more about my son, I need to know more about my Father. Because no one knows my son like my Father. That goes for all of us. If we want to learn to love the people around us, then it would do us good to get to know the Father above us. Because He knows my name, and yours, and whatever we decide to name this new child. I think I’m just gonna call him Fuzz. That fits him well. I just can’t see it spelled out on a pillow.
Take Comfort in Knowing that He Knows You,