Another Brother from my Mother

If you've ever asked me how many siblings I have, I'm sure that my answer has been that I have one brother, 5 years younger.

Unfortunately, I now believe that I've been answering that question incorrectly for the past 25 years or so.

Slow down, slick - it's not like that. Let me start at the beginning.

I believe that life begins at conception. I believe what Psalm 139 teaches about when life begins - check it out:

Psalm 139:13-16 - For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

I've believed that for a long, long time - as long as I can remember. I've known that from the moment I was conceived, God knew me, God loved me and God had a plan for what my life would be. I've never doubted the truth of that - ever.

Later on, when "Wife of RevPhil" and I started having children of our own, I believed those same precious thoughts about them - that from the very first second of their existence, God was intimately involved with them.

I know what you're thinking: RevPhil, where are you going with this? Hang on, slick, I'm gettin' there!

Back in 1981, when I was 6 years old and my brother was 1, my mom was taken to the hospital because of severe pain in her abdomen. The doctors had several possible ideas about what might have been causing it, but what it came out to was this:

After my brother was born (via C-section), my mom had her tubes tied to prevent future pregnancies. Now, a year later, what happened was that determined little sperm had found his way through the ties and cuts and cauterizations of one of her fallopian tubes and fertilized an egg. This was causing her pain, because that now-fertilized egg was trapped up inside the tied-off end of her fallopian tube, unable to make it into the uterus. At the time it had to be removed, it was the size of a grapefruit.

Let's take a time-out here to remind ourselves what we've just stated about the beginning of life. From the time of conception (a sperm fertilizing an egg), we believe life has begun, and the Bible indicates that God is intricately involved in the formation of that new life.

Translation: I have "another brother from my mother!" (or sister) In fact, I've thought of this little one before, and always sort of considered it to be the little sister I never knew. I've had conversations with my dad about it, and he thinks of it the same way - he looks forward to meeting his "other kid" when he gets to heaven.

But I've never answered the "how many siblings do you have?" question with this in mind.

Why not? There's no doubt in my mind that life begins at conception, which means that I've been leaving this life out of my conscious thoughts, conversation and behavior.

I suppose it might be that it's just plain easier to not get into it. At the stage of a relationship when the answer to this question is typically exchanged, this might be a deep subject to breach. But, truthfully, I've never deliberately thought about it until recently. I've never known anyone who has answered that question this way.

It's time for my answer to the sibling question ro reflect my heartfelt conviction about when life begins. I'm not going to (consciously or unconsciously) deny the existence of one of my family members anymore. And who knows but that because of my sincere answer, God may open an opportunity for me to share about His definition of when life begins. That might make someone I've just met a little uncomfortable, or think of me as a whack-job, but I don't really care - been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

So - how many siblings do I have? Two - I have one brother who's 5 years younger and another sibling 6 years younger that never made it out of the womb - and I'm as excited to meet him or her as can be.

Until next time - RevPhil