When Labor and Delivery Seem Daunting

Our labors are meant to point us to a much greater reality—Christ and him crucified. 

I was about nine months pregnant with my first baby when I received some advice I will never forget. A sweet friend of mine told me to be very mindful of the first moments when my daughter entered this world. She told me of the incredible miracle of watching a baby take their first breaths of oxygen while knowing that God is breathing literal life into their bodies. A few weeks later when my daughter was born, I yelled with relief and excitement, “Breath of life! Breath of life!” as she took her first breath. I’m sure the nurses and the doctor in that delivery room thought I was crazy, but I didn’t care. I was seeing the active hand of God’s grace as he breathed the breath of life into her body. I was experiencing, as you may have, the time for my daughter to be born. Whether you birthed a baby yourself or are the mother of a child through adoption, you are a recipient of this grace. You have received it both in the breath of your own life and in the life of your child. The intricacies of labor and delivery; the entry of a child into the world; the biological realities of how a child comes to be; all of these things scream of God’s glory and God’s grace. God’s kindness is on inexplicable display in the birth of a child, perhaps more than it is in any other time. In the midst of the curse of humanity, God is near. In the midst of agony, we know that joy is coming.