Waiting for Birth

Right now I am anxiously awaiting the birth of my first child, a daughter. In fact, I have been waiting expectantly for weeks now. My wife was having preterm labor for months now, and when we finally got her off the anti-labor medication we naturally assumed the end would come soon. That was two and a half weeks ago. My wife has been having frequent and painful contractions ever since then, but no baby. After two weeks of pain, turmoil, waiting, and anxiety, we are both so ready for this baby to be born that we could, and periodically do, scream.

You’d think that as the time continues to draw closer to our daughter being born we would be getting more and more excited in anticipation. But with all of the pain and false starts we are just getting more and more jaded and frustrated and willing to give up one it all. We know that our daughter has to come sometime. There is a definite maximum date that she can stay unborn, but because we have been waiting so long and expecting so often we are getting frustrated instead of excited.

I think many Christians are like my wife and I right now, waiting for a new birth and getting frustrated because they don’t see if fully yet. We want to be changed, want to be reborn in the image of God, but the longer it takes, the more pain and hassle it causes, the more false starts we have, the harder it is to be excited for it. Our patience dies away and we are just annoyed that it hasn’t happened yet, or even lose faith that it will happen at all.

There are little changes in my wife that continually show us that change is coming, just coming slowly. And with our little one kicking away inside of her it is hard to forget that something is happening. That isn’t in question. What we so often have a problem with is the timing. We want it now, not later.

Don’t lose hope that change is coming. Look at your life and if you are walking with God you will be able to see little changes happening all throughout your life that points to a new life coming out in you. Little kicks and jabs that you never felt before, evidence that God is working in us. The problem is that we take our eyes off what is going on now and can only see what we want to happen in the future.

My daughter will be born. We are being changed. But what is happening in us now is what needs to happen before God can work the next step in our change. We cannot rush it anymore than my wife and I can encourage our daughter to come early. Instead, if we want to avoid being frustrated and giving up, we need to focus on the changes happening right now in our lives, and encourage those changes to continue and grow so that we can move on to the next step in our new birth with Christ. This step might not be as glorious as we want, and it might be more painful than we would like, but it is necessary, and it is changing us into Christ’s image.