Chrissy's Day 23: Preggo!

Summary of Romans 8:18-27

When I think about the glory that is to come, I don't even bother worrying about the sufferings we're facing now. That glory is so great, that every part of nature is eagerly awaiting it. Waiting for the time when we will be fully revealed as God's children.

Everything on earth was cursed by God, and so creation too waits for the time when it will be free from death and decay along with God's children.

It's been like childbirth, the earth has been groaning with 'labour pains'. And we groan too, waiting for our birth as God's adopted children.

We are saved by hope. (We must understand that we can't hope for something we already have, it has to be for something we don't yet have.) And we wait patiently in hope.

The Holy Spirit helps us when we are weak. We don't know what to pray for, and so the Holy Spirit does it for us. When words cannot express things properly, the Holy Spirit groans for us and God understands.

Reflection

Having given birth in the not too distant past, I feel drawn to this passage. I should be able to relate.

Actually, I'm remembering back to when I was pregnant... I remember reading this passage and talking to Mike about it. I thought "how strange that a man (Paul) would think of childbirth as a way to describe something. And a single man at that." It made me wonder about how different his culture was from ours. Perhaps he understood labour more than most single lads over here do? Perhaps he saw is mother/sister/aunty/neighbour in labour? Who knows.

Anyway.

I'm loving the old Message version again. Verses 22-25:

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Loving that idea of diminishing. Nope, I know that the longer you wait for your baby to be born the bigger that bump gets and the greater your desire to meet your wee one and the more excited you get.

I'm not sure if I really feel that way about our future deliverance. To be honest, I think the longer I wait the more blase I get. That takes me back to what I was saying at the beginning of Lent. I don't think I really get it.

Prayer

Dear Lord,

I want to be excited about the future glory.
I want to expectantly await the time when I fully become your adopted daughter.

Please help me to understand.

I want to be your servant, your vessel.

Amen

x
Chrissy