People talk about the journey Joseph and Mary took when they went to Bethlehem just before Jesus was born. And stories say it must’ve been a fairly grueling trip. Because they probably had to travel by donkey or some other slow form of transportation. Maybe they even walked a lot of the way. And of course, you know about how they had to sleep with the animals when they got there. Because there was no room to be had. But what I’ve never heard anyone else ever talk about are what Jesus’ earliest memories might have been.
And I was just thinking about that.
Maybe you don’t know this, and if you don’t, what cave have you been living in? But Jesus was God in the flesh. And that was a completely new thing. Because for endless eons past, He had always been one of the 3 persons in one God. As a Spirit being. So, no small thing.
And since Jesus was God in the flesh, even in Mary’s womb, my imagination came up with this idea. I think it might be possible that He was totally aware of the entire process as it unfolded. In other words…
Jesus’ earliest memories might have been from His earthly conception.
And I mean, of course, those memories He would begin to gather in as a flesh and bone human being.
Can you imagine?
I mean…He’s God. So His awareness might have been full even as a single cell human being. And then it continued as He entered the embryonic stage of pregnancy. That’s when His stem cells developed and multiplied. And since He’s the one who came up with the way it all works, I wonder if He looked around and thought, “Wow. So, this is what it’s like from the inside out.”
And those stem cells turned into the cells that would form His whole body. His major organs started forming. His brand new heart started beating. And I wonder if He was in awe of how that felt. Seems like He’d have to be.
And since Jesus is God, I wonder if He observed (and then remembered) how Mary’s placenta took nutrients and oxygen and water from her blood and passed it to Him through the umbilical cord. As the Creator of the process, it would have to be incredibly amazing to watch it from that perspective.
And then imagine how He might have watched the amniotic sac form. And then watch it fill up with amniotic fluid and surround Him. I wonder if He thought, “Yes, this IS the way to protect babies in their mothers’ wombs.” It certainly seems like that could be one of His earliest memories.
But those are just the first stages of development a baby goes through during pregnancy. If Jesus could see it all happening and remember it all, there was a lot more to come.
Like these other important steps in the embryonic stage…
The creation of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. And we certainly can’t leave out the heart. It starts out as a tiny tube. And somehow, without the help of anything or anyone, it starts beating.
So, Jesus might have remembered how that felt. And then He might recall how His face started to form. Eyes and ears started out on the side of His head and then moved around to the front. Then eyelids formed to protect His eyes. And tissue bonded together to form His forehead, nose, cheeks, lips, and all the way down to His jaw.
I can imagine Him saying, “Well, well…look at me. My human life is really taking shape now.”
And there were still so many other steps He’d go through. And we’re talking about just the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. An enormous amount of change. But it must have all felt infinitesimally small compared to the infinite and eternal change Jesus went through just to get there.
Then, He went through the second trimester, and entered the third. And that’s when things might have gotten seriously interesting. Because at some point during that stage of His development, Joseph and Mary “went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife…” That trip would have been bumpy to say the least.
Now, I’m willing to say maybe Jesus’ earliest memories weren’t all that pregnancy from the inside out stuff. And maybe He just wanted to go through the process like all the rest of us.
But it’s cool to imagine.
Because I think of what an awesome journey it would be for Him to see.
Yeah, I know…it’s an odd direction that I go
When I say…what if Jesus planned it all that way?
So, I’ll just…leave it here as something I discussed.
But one day…I’ll ask Him if it really went that way.
Stay tuned,
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