I was reading a few days ago from “God’s Loving Presence” by Ignatius of Loyola. Here’s a snippet:

I look at all the creatures of the earth and in space, and I remind myself that God created them, and continues creating them, and dwells within them.  Through eons and eons God has remained faithful to every created thing.  At this very moment, rocks and stones are solid and can be used for building because God is faithful to creation.  Plants and herbs turn to the light, grow, and can be used for food and healing because God is faithful.  Animals have sight and smell and feeling; have instincts and impulses that move herds and flocks to migrate; butterflies and hummingbirds to sip nectar from flowers—all of that because God is faithful and sustains all created things…

Then I think about myself, and I ask what this means to me.  God present at my conception;  God present at my birth and my growth into infancy… (Emphasis mine)

“God present at my conception” pulled me up short. I was adopted at birth by (then) Army Air Corps Captain Norris Ewell and his wife Rudell. I found out in 1986, at age 39, from a conversation with the obstetrician who delivered me (a long story) that my biological mother was a 40-year-old, unmarried, Army nurse. I was her first (and probably only!) child. Therefore, I am the product of an illicit affair, involving at least one, and possibly two, officers in the U.S. Army.

I’m not sure that’s as good a story as my friend, Pastor Bob Kaylor, also adopted, whose biological parents were officers in the Salvation Army (not married to each other)!

But Bob and I are in good company according to Pastor Ed Rowell who presented evidence in a sermon back in 2013 that King David was likely the product of an affair. That would explain why his brothers didn’t like him and why he was relegated to tending sheep (a low-status position). Look it up: David had two sisters, Abigail and Zeruiah (1 Chronicles 2.13 – 17), whose father was Nahash (2 Samuel 17.25, 26). Ed believes that Jesse had an affair with Nahash’s wife, producing David. Later, Jesse must have married her, and she brought her two daughters into the mix. (You can’t make this stuff up!)

But this back story sheds light on a well-known verse:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51.5, ESV)

We tend to spiritualize the verse as, sure, we’re all born in sin, ever since the Fall. But the language is plain, and David is saying something about himself. And he’s saying something very important: it doesn’t matter what our background is. God can and does use any of us. For that, we can be thankful.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead… (Philippians 3.13, ESV)

So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him. (Romans 8.28, 29, Passion Translation)

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139.13 – 16, ESV)