Is there life before birth?

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." Jeremiah 1.5

In the aftermath of Easter issues of death and resurrection loom large. But what about life before birth and is that a question worth even pondering? Christians believe that Jesus' life did not end with his death and we also believe that his life did not begin with his birth. In being born in our image and in promising that, through faith, we should grow into his, does that imply that we share in his prior existence or, as mere creatures, did our earthly lives only begin at our physical birth, as our re-creation as immortal beings began at our re-birth?

Because we were created we cannot claim to be eternal, even if faith brings with it the gift of immortality. Because eternal suggests "without beginning" as well as "without end". Yet in the articulation of his call, the prophet Jeremiah asserts that his life predated his birth - to a certain extent anyway, in the mind of God. But to say that "I knew you" implies more than that he was a mere twinkle in his heavenly father's eye. He was real enough to be known by God.

Powerful implications flow from notion that, even created rather than eternal, our lives began before we were born...