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Saturday, July 6, 2013

The Baby Will Come

Photo: hipshakingmama.wordpress.com
In 1972, pregnant with my first child, I asked my mother, "How much will it hurt?"
"Don't worry," she told me. "You forget about it after the baby comes."

She was wrong about that.
I didn't forget--not then, and not through my second delivery. I still remember.
I remember the urgency.
I remember the  intensity.
I remember the whole, round, bigger-than-me desire to have the whole thing over with.
I remember how much, partway through, I wanted to give up the whole job.
But, once begun, I was stuck.
Once conceived, once carried, and so long anticipated, the baby would come.

The earth does the same thing.
God implanted in it the perfection of Himself, the pregnancy of His promise, and that child will, with or without our permission, be born.
And we groan in the waiting for it.
Every day, we feel how things ought to be and long for them.

Why do we know so much evil when God is so merciful? we ask.
Birth pangs.
Why do poverty, and sickness, and injustice continually plague us? we ask.
Birth pangs.
Why can't men and women just get along? we ask.
Birth pangs.
Every day, the earth swells with expectation of God's return, it leans into its own pangs of wanting, it opens the way and says, between cries, 
"Come, Lord Jesus!"

Creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one Who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as if in the pangs of childbirth right up to the present time.--Romans 8:20-22


Do you remember your own pangs of childbirth?
Do they give you any insight about the world's imperfections and what joy might still be in store?

7 comments:

  1. So true, what a good word, the Lord says in the last days it will be like birth pains.

    And YES, I do remember.....but as your ma said, "once it's over? Ohhhhhh, the pains were all worth it.

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    1. Not forgotten, but worth it...yes. You are right there. And may it be so, too, with the pains the world brings as it crumbles.

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  2. Wow, what a good analogy. Yes.

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  3. I often think of those words regarding the end times. Our world is so filled with wickedness and suffering.
    I do remember the pain of child birth each and every time I experienced it! But the result was a true gift. God has blessed me with wonderful children and a good, hard working and decent husband.
    This was written wonderfully and I am happy I stopped by. Hugs Anne

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    Replies
    1. I am happy you stopped by, too. It always amazes me how the intimate details of our lives, like the pains of childbirth, have reflections in the big stuff, the overall plan of God. Nothing in Him is random, is it?

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  4. Oh yes. Now that I've been suffering from severe chronic pain for 13 years I do think about my labor 21 years ago.
    The pain eventually ended and I had a beautiful little boy. To think I thought that pain was intolerable. Silly me.
    This is very inspirational. I hope you have a wonderful week.

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