Editors' Note: This meditation first appeared on April 24, 2014, on the youth page of "De Wachter Sions," a weekly publication of the "Gereformeerde Gemeenten in Nederland." It was translated for the Reformed Pro-Lifer and is reprinted here with permission from the editor.

You have probably seen a picture of a pre-born child, similar to the one I have in front of me while writing. It's a beautiful full-colour image of an embryo five weeks after fertilization, about ten millimeters long. That's only a third of an inch!

The subscription reads, "The head will begin to straighten and separate more from the torso. Eyes, nose, and mouth are clearly distinguishable—the eyes are developing to the extent that the cornea is beginning to form. The ear canal and ears are further forming this week, as are the limbs, though legs and feet grow somewhat slower than the arms and hands."

The photo below this text shows a frontal image of the tiny head—the start of a recognizable face, eyes, nostrils, and a small opened mouth with the upper lip slightly pulled up. And all of that is part of a head of less than half a centimeter!

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (verse 5).

 It was a lively discussion that morning on the mission field. The students of the Bible School found the words of Psalm 51 hard to understand, especially that word: “In sin did my mother conceive me.” What did that mean? Was David born out of adultery? Or was his mother a decent woman, but did God consider the deed of procreation as such as something sinful? Or had David himself committed a certain sin before his birth? The students struggled with that verse but just could not come to a conclusion. Can you?