“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” is the word of God to the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah. It is equally God’s word to each of us. Before the “Let there be . . .” of creation, before God breathed Adam’s first breath, God knew us and God loved us. God loves each of us as though there were no one else in the world, as though there were only one person to love. We are so precious to God that, as Jesus reminds us in the pages of Matthew’s Gospel, “even the hairs of your head are all counted.” This is not only a word spoken to the disciples or to the Christian community down through the ages;
...more
