A Bundle of Joy

As Erika continues to make progress on her Personal Portfolio, she asked me to write a chapter on the day she was born. Since I finished the final draft, I shared what I had written with Mike to make sure my facts were correct. Two years ago, I did the same thing for Nick.

Since I like to write, both accounts were fairly detailed. It’s funny how clearly I remember events that were 18 and 20 years ago. For example, I remember that Nick took 24 hours to make his grand entrance. I paced the maternity ward in trying to speed progress along. Erika, however, didn’t mess around. From start to finish, the process took five hours; it happened so quickly that I didn’t even get to have the benefit of pain meds.

Even though any guys who read the previous paragraph are probably yawning and thinking, “Here we go again. . .another childbirth story,” the women are probably squirming in their seats, jockeying for position to tell their own delivery room tales. Inevitably that happens when we mommy-types get together. When one woman starts describing her experience in the “combat zone” of labor and delivery, another will soon piggy-back on that tale with her own. While each birth is different and unique, there is one thing we all agree on: it hurts.

At church today, Pastor Kevin continued his sermon series called “Following Jesus. . .Discovering God.” For nine weeks, Pastor Kev has been “unpacking” (his word) the scenario in which Jesus was preparing the disciples for his departure. In today’s lesson, the disciples were confused and despondent at Christ’s announcement: “’In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while, you will see me.’ They kept asking, ‘What does he mean? We don’t understand what he is saying.’” John 16: 16, 18

Ever empathetic and compassionate, Jesus responded by saying, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” John 16: 20-22.

Using the concept of childbirth, Christ begins by explaining that yep, childbirth hurts. It’s the worst pain a woman will ever experience. But to try to give that pain words is nearly impossible because once the child is born, the memory of the pain is forgotten. As soon as that baby is placed in a mother’s arms, her joy in seeing and holding her child supersedes and basically eradicates the pain from memory.  It’s a good thing too, or there would be a whole lot of one-child families in the world.

So it is with the troubles, disappointments, and pain of this world. At times, it royally sucks to be in this world. At times, the pain is so deep and unbearable that tears aren’t even sufficient to release it. At times, disappointments are so bewildering that we question God’s prudence in creating us and/or creating us for this time and place.

Even so, God assured His disciples (and assures us) that first, this pain is temporary.  “As the Scriptures say, ‘People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And that word is the Good News that was preached to you” (I Peter 1: 24-5). Secondly, He promises that there is an inexplicable joy that will follow the pain. Just as a woman forgets childbirth pain after she meets her child, so, too, will we forget the pain of this life when this life is over.

Likewise, the pain that we are encountering is indicative of the fact that we are moving closer and closer to that promised joy. “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things much happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” Matthew 24: 6-8.

Fine. So basically we have to just suck it up and wait? We can trust that a greater joy is on the way because God always keeps His promises, but in the meantime, we just have to grit our teeth and endure?

Not so much. Of course, it’s an option if you choose it, but it’s not the way He intends for us to live.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” John 15:11. Because we live in an imperfect world, there will always be pain, and yes, life will suck at times. However, knowing what we do about what’s to come, we can “be joyful always” (I Thessalonians 5:16) even when life feels as though it’s bottoming out. That doesn’t mean we stifle tears, walk around with a stupid grin on our face, and act as though pain is weakness. It means that even as we grieve, we remember the hope and promise of the joy that is to come.