So, Saturday night around 2:30am, Jacelyn felt that perhaps her contractions had started. The body beginning to prepare itself to bring forth life. To do so, though, she must struggle and strain, push and rest, trust and hope. All this must take place before the baby can come out. But one thing is certain, the baby must come out. It has gotten too big to remain.
This is God's plan from the beginning. And the struggle is due to the Fall. Because of Eve's rebellion, childbirth would be painful. Bringing forth life would have been painless? Ah, indeed, but it never happens pre-Fall. But God's ways are higher than ours. There is much wisdom in this. Just in case our thoughts and ideas would perceive wrongly, God did not allow pre-Fall birth. Everyone born of a woman came through tribulations. God's prescription said so. And the reason is to give us yet another portrait of redemption, of life. You see, Lord willing, Jacelyn will push and struggle and endure by God's grace and at some point in the future, a baby will be born. Jacelyn will be exhausted...but there will be inexpressible joy upon the first tones of the baby's cries. Soon Jacelyn will forget all about the pain and delight in this newborn life.
The analogy runs twofold. First, Christ endured this life through many struggles and tribulations. There was not one easy moment for Him on this earth because the cross was ever before Him. Just as the anticipation of His arrival was so great by those looking for the Messiah, so the anticipation of His work was. But His work was one of suffering. He had to suffer for our sakes. He had to endure everything the Fall had brought about. And when He endured the beatings, the mockery, the extreme torture of the cross, the humility of being buried in a borrowed tomb (He had no place to lay His head!), the earth began to experience birth pains. For when they laid the Son of Man in the tomb, He was already too big for it. The heavens could not contain Him, how could a sepulchre? And just as He had promised, after three days, He emerged, conquering sin and death once for all! And when He had done so, there was no more suffering for Him to endure, He himself had said "It is finished!" No, the womb of the tomb could not contain the Son of God. Life was coming forth to usher in a new humanity, an indestructible one that can now be ours by faith. Everyone born of a woman will die because of the curse, but everyone born of heaven will never taste death because of what Christ has done.
Second, the analogy progresses further still. This life, the one we live in between His two advents, is another type of pregnancy, labor. As the good doctor recorded, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven. We will struggle and fight and do battle against spiritual enemies all our time here. Days upon days where we will lament with the Psalmist, "How long, O LORD?" Yet the hope Jesus ushered in when He emerged from the grave is our hope. For blessed are all who take refuge in Him. This life is life in utero and as one passing through the birth canal. Fighting, struggling...but where light breaks through on the other side into a deathless eternity, the pain and toil will long be forgotten. This is Peter's meditation in 1 Peter 1:3-9.
So my hope is this: "Though weeping may tarry through the night, joy comes in the morning." When this baby is born, it will remind me once again of the great hope we have in Christ, resurrection...life...joy.
