In great anticipation for our baby girl Olivia's due date, I have been watching loads (upon loads) of labor and delivery vlogs. In one particular video, the woman who has been laboring tirelessly for hours finally pulls out her newborn daughter, and through tears tells her, "We've been waiting for you!" In that moment, I just about lose it. What is it about that fateful meeting of mama and baby that so undeniably jerks the heartstrings?
I wonder if the key is not eager anticipation.
Since Jeremy and I lost baby Jed by miscarriage back in February, I have been in a wrestling match with hope. I think many mamas who have gone through pregnancy loss can relate. Death persists in this world because of wretched sin. And when one has once lost to death, the call to hope for life seems to present a task almost irrational because we have peered too closely into the gaze of death the enemy to overlook its temporary reign.
But God is almighty and wise. He rules and has ordained that Christ will finally swallow up death. (read with emphasis!) In fact, already "Christ has been raised from the dead... (!!!) For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:20-22). For those in Christ, this is a promise. New life after death!
And the promise continues.
"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
"Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15:51-55)The closer my acquaintance with death, the sweeter I find this fixed promise. God has declared that we will live immortal, imperishable with him. In fact, greater suffering on the road to that day primes the believer for that day's glory to come. Suffering, the tool, the way by which our Lord himself went to glory, is ours also to accept and do well. And even as "we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Rom. 8:36-37). Our groaning and suffering serves us for readiness for the glory that is to be revealed to us.
And Paul makes clear that the creation itself, still bound to corruption of sin, is groaning in the pains of childbirth for the revealing of the sons of God. In the agonies of grief, malice, strife are our groanings for that better day when Christ comes to banish death and give us bodies imperishable, God's sons glorified in Christ. "We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved" (Rom. 8:23-24).
Dear Christian, do you live your life anchored in the promise of that day?
Surer than the anticipated arrival of our baby girl is the guarantee of our glorious Christ's return. And so I find myself deeply cherishing this final leg of pregnancy carrying Olivia, eagerly awaiting her arrival, as she reminds me to eagerly long for our adoption as sons. Jeremy and I know her, named her, and have shared every day of her life with her thus far, but we've not yet met her. But when she comes - when she is revealed - she will be with us, we'll have her full presence, and we will be together.
Likewise, we will be together with our Savior one sweet day. Let us live through trial and joy in eager conscious hope of that day.
