“The ‘Wonder’ Was There Before You Were You”

— a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

Before you ever had a name — before the world knew who you would be, boy or girl — your body had already started making nipples.

Around the fourth week after conception, those little nubs began forming along a line that every mammal has. By week six, they were there, right in place — regardless of whether you would grow to be male or female.

The blueprint of the human body doesn’t rush to label. In the earliest stages of life, every embryo begins with the same set of foundational parts — neither male nor female, not yet. There’s a quiet pause in the process. A waiting. Then, around week seven, the body responds to a message hidden deep in the chromosomes — a message that activates if there’s a tiny gene on the Y chromosome called SRY. If it’s there, the path shifts. Testes begin to form, testosterone is released, and the embryo begins developing into a boy. If it’s not there, the journey continues by default toward becoming a girl.

But here’s the marvel — even though the genetic path was already written, the body began with parts that could become male or female — waiting on a silent signal to carry out the plan.

The code for becoming male is there from the start — quietly embedded in the Y chromosome — but it doesn’t run right away. The “nipple program,” though, gets activated earlier. And it runs the same way, no matter what’s written in the chromosomes. It works for boys and girls alike. Almost as if the Designer wanted to remind us that some parts of our human blueprint are shared — unifying — before the differences unfold.

And that’s not just poetic. It’s science. Researchers have shown that sexual development isn’t a simple flip of a switch. It’s a cascade — like falling dominoes or whispered instructions — genes triggering hormones, hormones shaping structures, structures guiding future growth. Even after birth, some parts of the body still carry hints of that shared origin. Like the presence of nipples in males. Or the fact that every human has mammary glands — even if they never produce milk.

Some might find that strange. But what if it’s a reminder? That the One who made us crafted us with balance and symmetry? That His design, even in its early ambiguity, was purposeful?

And what if it tells us something about how He sees us? Not as rigid categories, but as individuals — lovingly and intentionally formed?

The psalmist once said we were “wonderfully made” — not after we became distinguishable by sex or size or personality — but from the very beginning. From that hidden moment, when no human eye could see us, but every part was being skillfully woven (Psalm 139:13-16, NWT).

Even before you were you — the wonder had already begun.

Sources:

• National Library of Medicine, Development of the human gonads, Carlson, 2014

• Cornell University, SRY gene function in testis development, ResearchGate, 2008

• Mayo Clinic, Male breast tissue and gynecomastia, 2022

• Nature Reviews Genetics, Sex determination: the molecular biology of SRY, Koopman, 2005