Who Made You?

For you formed my inward parts: You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. Psalm 139:13-16

We have a little chatterbox in our family, which results in a lot of fun for all of us. Selena, at nine and a half months, has developed quite a vocabulary. Of course, “Da-da” was first, as it usually is, but she’s quickly adding to her word repository. “Pop-Pop” was an early word, partly because that named individual has said the word over and over to her since her birth. Finally, recently we’ve recognized that she’s been saying “Mommy” for a while now—it was spoken with a “b” sound before, but now she’s beginning to master the “mmm” sound. Last week, I was a little disappointed when I discovered that what we were thinking was “Nanna” is really her pronunciation of “Auntie Nee.” Oh well, I THINK something was verbalized when she saw me at church yesterday, that was a reference to me—and it did start with an “n,” so we’re getting there. There are quite a few words more, but I won’t be a grandmother who subjects you to ALL the details, at least not about this particular topic.

But I will tell you about this, which has excited me enormously: I have been a firsthand witness to the reports that I’ve been getting for about a week now, that she has learned her first catechism answer. At my house yesterday, when asked by her mother the question “Who made you?” she answered clearly and distinctly “Gah-duh!” Of all the little achievements that I’ve seen over the past months, need I say, as those of you who have been following my blog over the past year would understand, this one causes me more joy than all of the others put together. Oh, I know that she has no clue whatsoever what she is saying, but is repeating something that has been impressed on her over and over. But aren’t various forms of indoctrination things that occur in all of life anyway, whether it be our daily home life or our schooling? I don’t care—she’s saying it and someday she’s going to know what it means. Praise the Lord!

I have been blogging for almost exactly one year now. I started off at Yahoo and moved over here to Blogger after a month or so. On June 30th of last year, I made my first official post, after my introductory one. This first post was entitled “Who Made You?” It was written while we were awaiting Selena’s birth. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to read a couple of excerpts from that post, which was rather long:

"That is where my first grandchild is now. [In the womb.]She is not a fetus, she is a child. And her name is Selena. Before she officially makes her entrance, I would like to ask her this one simple first catechism question that her PopPop and I taught her mommy more than twenty years ago. It is one of the most crucial issues she will need to come to grips with in all of her life that is now just beginning: Who made you, Selena? That is the question I’m addressing today, and the catechism answer is just one simple word. God. That is all the answer that it provides, and do you know what? That is really all the answer that is needed.

". . .Yes, there is just one answer to this catechism question. It is the only possible response that there could be. Selena can’t tell yet, but I hope someday she will know the answer to the question. But not only that. I hope someday she will know the One who is the answer. So I’ll repeat, once more, that first catechism question that I would pose to my first grandchild: Who made you? And I will repeat the answer with all of the exuberance I can muster from within me: GOD!!!"

So, do you see why it is that what I heard yesterday means so much to this Nanna, almost one year later? Don’t you think this is a good prayer for all of us grandmoms, by whatever name we’re called, that we beseech our heavenly Father for our grandchildren—that they will not just know the answer, but the One who IS the answer to the first catechism question?

(Btw, you can see a picture of the little catechism book that we use in our family—it’s on my sidebar.)