(Continued)  You showed Your mercy to me before I could perceive it. You came to me with Your kindnesses before I could long for them. Your generosity encompassed me before I could offer thanks for it. You are the one who not only marvelously formed me in the womb of my mother, but also drew me out from the womb. You have been my hope since I was yet at my mother’s breast. I was cast upon You from birth. From my mother’s womb You have been my God (Psa. 22:10–11).

When I consider how many die in the womb before coming to the light of this life, I admire and praise Your mercy all the more, because You brought me, alive, safe, and sound, out of the confinement of the womb into the theater of this world. How many years passed in which I was nothing! But it pleased You to build this dwelling of my body, and to bring it out of the deep and darkness of my mother’s womb. You have given me a rational soul and did not will that I be a stone or snake. To You, my God, for this Your mercy, be honor and glory forever. Amen. (The Daily Exercise of Piety by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, p.30-32)