Birth Pangs

Each day I look at the birthday calendar that hangs on the back of the toilet door. Birthdays of friends and family. The day, the moment they came into this world forever etched in their history. Their day, planned and foreordained by our creator; immovable, unchangeable... And so I stare and wonder about what God already knows, what is already planned. The day and the moment, he has gone before and chosen. I watch and wait, which blank space will become a sacred one. Which day, previously passed by uneventfully, will become a day of celebration for a new life, dearly loved? Baby, we look forward to your arrival and trust the timing will be perfect.

It is a strange headspace to occupy. Only others who have been there can truly appreciate it. Nine months pregnant and waiting...Swelled with expectancy, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Enlarged in body and heart to receive a new life. You wait, on the precipice of a new season. It is imminent, and yet... It feels so far away. Each day is approached with the question 'will today be the day?' Hopeful and a little anxious, often uncomfortable and irritable...When will the day come? I find it bizarre to be so close to an event that is surely the epitome of the 'inevitable' and yet feel it is further from attaining than it ever has. So hard to see past the discomfort of today, to the joy of tomorrow.

I reflect on the spiritual parallels of this state (it does help pass the time!) Jesus likens the days preceding his return to 'birth pangs'. We don't know the hour of his return, but we know the season. Just as we don't know the day we will give birth, but surely the signs that the 'hour is near' are glaringly obvious. Though I think we are far thicker when it comes to discerning seasons that are spiritual. Look around the world today, surely we are in the season when his return is imminent? It would be foolish to ignore 'the signs of the times'. 'All creation groans as if in the pangs of childbirth'. The earth is groaning, we cannot go on like this indefinitely, something will happen. It is as inevitable as childbirth...