Some of you women right away will say "she's crazy!" I've heard it so many times. I've had looks of wonder and disbelief when I tell people I love labour days. For me it's a day of pampering from my family, awesome food and in the end I get to lounge in bed for at least a day. Doesn't every woman want to be pampered like she's the most important person in the world? Or eat whatever she wants? Or get to lie in bed for hours without interruption being served breakfast lunch and dinner in bed?
Those are all sweet things but they are not actually the true highlight of labour and delivery for me. What I love most about it all is the excruciating pain brought about bringing new life into this world.
"okay now she really is crazy".....keep reading.
In the beginning God created everything and it was good. In summary. And then the people God made, who represent all of humanity, who act as every one of our representatives, broke a promise they made to their maker ("no we will not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil") and as any good father would do, he gave them the discipline they needed. He told man he would toil in his work and he told woman her pain in child bearing would increase greatly. So what? I love the curse? No. I love the promise. Mankind is cursed until the day when we are reunited with God in heaven. How is the curse broken? Through the sacrifice of Jesus. Who took our place on the cross, sent our sins to their father in Hell, was raised from the dead, perfect and blameless and stands before our father in heaven just for us so that we may stand before God in the same way. Perfect and blameless in his sight.
Romans 6:3-11 says that we died on the cross with Jesus:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We toil through pregnancy and sometimes we get to the end and wish it to be over and done with; we are so tired of being tired. and then labour hits. It comes out of nowhere. We women know that we are pushed to the point where we don't know how we are going to make it through the next contraction. How could this pain get any worse. And then it does. And it gets even worse and still gets even worse before it's over. And then all at once, with one final push of exasperation your body is limp, you lie back, close your eyes and hear the cry of the new life you were waiting for. Nothing matters anymore. You have received the prize.
Here is the beautiful parallel that I get teary eyed thinking about. I have been tired of sin. Have you? Thinking I'm so tired of making the same mistake over and over again? Just like our tiredness by the end of pregnancy. Then comes labour itself. The sacrifice. JESUS. Without a sacrifice, we can not stand before God our Father. He can't dwell with sin. Labour is like what life would be like without God. Hopeless. Painful. Longing for it to be over but it still gets worse. No end in sight. Despair. Only it doesn't end. And finally after a life of struggling through sin and being separated from God we receive his salvation. Just like when our baby is finally here. Nothing else matters except the new life God has given us.
It's a small picture. But I am grateful for the examples God gives us of his salvation through worldly experience. I can't wait to experience salvation to God's degree. What about you?
