Probability

So tomorrow is my ultrasound. Of course, that was the first thing I thought about after I awoke this morning, besides wondering why there was a toy rifle in bed next to me. (N crawled into bed with us sometime in the wee hours)
Boy..or girl?? Does it really matter? It sure seemed to up till today. I mean, I'm always praying for the health and growth of our little one, but today..I just pray that whoever is joining our family is healthy and strong. For his or her sake, not for ours. If this baby is not healthy, we'll do everything in our human power to take care of him or her, and trust in God either way.
But I've been thinking on the word "probability". It's the most used word right now, when referring to our little one. We're "probably" going to have a boy, given the fact that we have four already. But I remember reading in Rick and Jan Hess's book "A Full Quiver"..on probability. So I got that book down this morning to re-read the chapter. I quote "The words probably and probability comes from probable which is derived from the latin probabilis. The primary root is probo- to prove. Today when we say the word probable, we mean that not only might the thing happen, it's likely to take place. That's acceptable and we have no bones to pick with the concept. But when we begin to make major life decisions based on probabiliy, we skate on improbably thin ice." They then go over seven axioms (truths considered so self-evident as to require no outside corroborative evidence) Anyway, what stuck out to me was with Axiom number 1. "If I have green eyes and my spouse has brown, there is an X percent chance that our children will have brown eyes." So in our case.."If we have four boys, there is an X percent chance (what? 98%) that we will continue to have another boy". This "law" seems sound enough, but to introduce a tiny question: where is God in it? They say probability has been given a huge promotion; it has become deity, thereby earning the status of a philosophy or religion, in the same way that Evolution or Natural Selection has. The whole probability issue revolves around time, and not in an abstract, relativisitic way. In a short little (they say 300 words or less) essay, they go on to say that given in a biblical mind-set, it is capable of performing just one function: it can describe how God has worked in the past. A corollary to that is that probability has absolutely no ability to predict what God will do in the life of an individual in the future. Probability has no prophetic powers, it cannot fortell, much less dictate, anything in the future.
God gave us four boys. Probability did not. God can modify or abolish genetic or reproductive past trends as He wills. They went on to rename the Law of Probability as "The Observed Past Workings of God" (OPWOG). Now we are free to allow God to be the selective and determinative molder of individuals He presents Himself to be.
Now..after having said all that. Do I think this baby will be a boy? I really don't know..I guess I say it mostly to deter all the comments about little girls, and our need for one. I can see our family with five little boys..what a blessing! But on the other hand I can see us with our four little boys, and a little sister. What a blessing again! I just doesn't matter to us. Will we be disappointed when the ultrasound tech announces we're having another boy? Well, let's look at the word "disappointed". It means, "to satisfy the hopes or expectations of". I guess if we are going in there expecting to hear "its a girl" we may be disappointed. Then again, we may not. I guess it all depends on whether we go in expecting one certain gender. If we go in and expect it to be at least some gender, we're bound to not be disappointed. :o)
Then again...what if we can't find out at all???? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Let's not even go there. The Lord grant us patience if he chooses to leave it a secret for four more months. That'll be a whole nother post...
:o)