An egg is so familiar, it’s easy to forget what it is — and what it isn’t.

It isn’t the beginning.

We say, “life begins inside the egg,” but by the time that egg takes shape, life is already underway. Fertilization doesn’t happen inside the shell. It happens earlier — internally, within the hen. Before a single layer of shell begins to form, a microscopic joining of cells has already set the process in motion.

By the time we ever glimpse the smooth surface of the egg, a journey has already begun.

And the timing? It’s astonishing.

Once fertilized, the embryo doesn’t start dividing right away. Instead, it pauses — waiting for the perfect moment. As the egg moves through the hen’s oviduct, the developing cell holds still. Only after it’s safely laid, only when the temperature is right, does it resume its clockwork of multiplication. First two cells, then four, then eight. Then layers. Then feathers. Then movement.

All of that begins before we even call it a chick.

Before breath. Before sight. Before the shell even cools.

That’s the wonder.

We live in a world obsessed with outcomes. We want to see it. Touch it. Label it. Prove it. But Jehovah — he begins with what’s unseen. With timing that waits. With design that hides its most brilliant work just under the surface, until the moment is right.

We marvel at the egg. But the real wonder may be that it’s already too late to call this the start.

So what else in our lives is already in motion before we notice?

What if the answer to a prayer was fertilized days ago — and is only now taking shape?

What if the healing already began, even if it hasn’t surfaced yet?

What if Jehovah’s design is like that… quiet, hidden, patient?

After all, as Ecclesiastes 11:5 (NWT) reminds us:

“Just as you do not know how the spirit operates in the bones of the child inside a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of the true God, who does all things.”

By the time we see the egg, life is already a few steps in.

How many other things begin before we notice?

References:

• Ecclesiastes 11:5, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT)

• Avian reproduction physiology — summarized from public agricultural biology resources including university extension services (e.g., Penn State Extension, University of Illinois Department of Animal Sciences). Specific attribution omitted due to conceptual synthesis.