May
2006
Mother’s Day Message
THE BUTTON THAT NEVER COMES OFF
(Psalm 139:13-18)
I know you have had this experience before. Your button falls off. If it’s a top button on your blouse or shirt, your collar stands wide open. If it’s a sleeve button, your sleeve may flop around on your arm all day. If it’s a button on your pants….watch out they don’t fall down. Some buttons don’t really matter that much. They’re for looks. If one falls off, you might not even pay any attention to it – and maybe no one else will either. You may wear a campaign button or a smiley face or one of thousands like that which advertise something you won’t to say.
Once when I was in the service, I got written up for missing a button on my dress blue jacket uniform. It was pretty obvious. They were large silver buttons with a design in them. One missing really stood out. I complained that it fell off and I didn’t see if fall. That didn’t matter. All that matter is that it was missing. The how or why seemed irrelevant.
I may not be the smartest person in the world nor do I claim to be a seamstress. But I have figured out why buttons fall off. It’s not the button’s fault. That’s true. The fault lies in the thread. I have sewed buttons back on before only to have them drop off again. At first the threads come loose and then…before you know it, the button is gone. I have even doubled and tripled my thread – in anger – and sewed it so thick that I had this big wad of thread in the middle of my button. I have sewn them so tight before that I couldn’t even tilt the button enough to make it go through the button hole. And somehow – yes, somehow – they still managed to fall off.
But I have discovered one button that never falls off. It’s not a shirt button or a campaign button. Some buttons are for fastening while some are ornamental. This button is neither. This button never falls of because God made it. And He made it to stay there with a thread that never wears out. You can’t lose this button even if you wanted to – although there are people in this world today who are trying everything they know to get rid of it.
It’s an identity button. It tells something about you that no man made button could ever tell. It has a unique design. You don’t actually have this button when you are born, but you get it soon after free of charge simply because God wants you to have it. We call it by a very poor choice of a name. We refer to it as a belly button.
The one hundred-thirty-ninth Psalm contains one of the most personal and inspirational testimonies concerning the inescapable presence of Almighty God. In the first six verses the Psalmist describes God’s perfect knowledge of us. He searches us and knows us. His complete knowledge of us is so great that the writer admits he could never understand it. In the next six verses, he declares the presence of God is everywhere at all times. One could not escape the presence of God if he tried desperately to do so. We may lose His power and the filling of the Spirit to accomplish His work (Psalm 51:11), but we can never escape His presence. God is just as visible in the darkness as He is in the light (verses 11-12). How comforting and encouraging to rest on that truth, even in our darkest times.
But the third section of six verses, 13-18, refers specifically to the marvelous work of God in creating us. Even then, during creation, God knew us and was ever present. But, even then, He was involved in forming our lives to be what He wanted us to be.
1. God Created Us While We Were Protected in a Very Special Place of Warmth and Safety
That miraculous place is called the womb. It is the only place I am aware of in which a human can live and grow, yet not breathe. God created this place to keep the baby warm and to protect her. The Bible speaks many times of this place. It is often linked to the presence of God and the blessing of God. It is a sanctuary. A sanctuary is a place set apart, sanctified or made holy…a place of refuge, asylum, and immunity.
Before you were born, God knew you and searched you and was with you.
In Job 1:21, Job declared, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb…”
Psalm 22:9-10, “But you are he that took me out of the womb: you did make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon you from the womb: you are my God from my mother’s belly.”
Isaiah 44:2, “Thus says the LORD that made you, and formed you from the womb…”
Isaiah 49:1, “…The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.”
Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations.”
Luke 1:42, “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”
Luke 11:27, “And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bore you…”
It is sad to think that this place of warmth and safety has become a place of death for so many babies. The very place designed by God to enable a baby to live and thrive has, for many, become the place of terror and death. Look at verse 13. God’s presence was there before this baby even had developed his mind and emotions. The brain and the heart were not fully functioning yet, but the soul is already there. God fashions…or weaves…this child while still in his mother’s womb. That’s a miracle.
2. God Created Us While We Were Attached to a Very Special Person
Do you know what medical people call a belly button? I mean, what really is it to be called? Of course we call it a navel. Navel is a word that means the center of something. The bellybutton is in the center. But actually, it is a scar. That’s right. It is a scar left when the umbilical cord is cut off and withers.
A scar is something left on your body or your mind after something painful has happened. We carry scars on our bodies that remind us of an accident or a war injury. Your belly button is a scar. It not only reminds us of the nourishment we received from our mothers that enabled us to live, but it is a scar that reminds us of pain. Not our pain. Our mother’s pain when she bore us.
As long as you live, you carry a scar on your body that serves as a reminder that someone loved you and cared for you and suffered for you. Your belly button teaches us an important truth: You need somebody. Even the strongest, most independent, most arrogant people who have ever lived carry the same scar. The scar tells us that “you would have never made it on your own”. God designed umbilical cords to keep us attached to our mothers. Let that scar serve as a reminder of her love and suffering and our dependency on her to survive.
No matter how long you live, that button does not come off. The cord may be cut, but we never cease to be dependent on that woman who brought us into this world. God intended it that way.
3. God Created Us While Thinking Very Special Thoughts About Us
Look at verses 16-18. God took time to record your progress in the womb. He gave you what you needed to make it through this life. Sin in our human race has caused problems that God did not originally intend to be there. The precious thoughts that God had for you while you were still in the womb and still attached to an umbilical cord are more than you could ever count. They number more than the sand on the shore. Verse 18 concludes this section of verses with the assurance once again of God’s presence. Whether in the womb or hidden in some other dark place, whether asleep or awake, God is always with us.
Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, says the LORD…”
CONCLUSION:
Two Points to Consider:
A. God’s presence to the believer is a promise. Even before we are born, God is with us. No matter where we go, God’s presence will be there. The Psalmist declares in Psalm 23, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.”
Jeremiah 23:23-24, “Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Says the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? Says the Lord.”
Do you know the Lord’s presence in your life? The Good news is that you can know him and discover meaning and purpose in life.
B. Just as your own belly button is a scar that reminds you of your mother’s love and suffering; so the scars in the hands and feet of Jesus remind you of His love and suffering for you. Your mother sacrificed so you could be born. Jesus sacrificed His life so you could be born again.
Have you been born again? He is near and available today. Call upon Him and be saved.