Waiting...with a purpose

Once Christmas was over, we were "ready" for the new baby to come.  We had made all the preparations.  House was clean.  Weather was great. My work was as caught up as it could be.  Crib was set up.  Timing couldn't have been better.  Each morning I would wake up wondering if today was the day.  Each day, for a long time, it wasn't.

I thought I was making all the necessary preparations, until I realized I wasn't.  I was just waiting and being busy.  Every day that went by after his due date, the anxiety grew.  I tried to move past the lingering questions like "was the baby OK?" "was my wife OK?"  and all the associated anxiety and fears.  A few days past the due date, I finally realized that there was nothing that I could do to make sure everyone was safe, to make sure that everyone was OK, I simply wasn't the one in control.  So I began making preparations of a different kind.  The kind of preparations, that to be honest, had been lacking throughout most of my wife's pregnancy.

I was compelled by John 16:21-23 with Jesus' teaching to the disciples shortly before the High Priestly Prayer.  The literal translation of the text is that "A woman who is giving birth has anxiety, but as soon as she has given birth, she no longer remembers the pressures because of her joy". When I read the text, I realized that there was no guarantee that everything was going to be "OK" by my standards, as I had been hoping for, but I knew that everything would be perfect, by God's plan, no matter what the next few days, weeks, or even years, had in store.

Jesus was using the story as an analogy for our lives on earth and the emotions we feel and the preparations we make.  In the next sentence he tells us that the joy of a woman holding a newborn is a microcosm of the joy we will experience when we see Him again.  The pain, the anxiety, the fear of life will be removed and we will rejoice with Him and that joy cannot be taken away from us.  Ever.  So I began to go through my days living as if Christ was truly my sole sufficiency, despite the anxiety.  I began waiting for the new baby with a purpose.

Final Thought: I'm sitting in the hospital room right now as I write this looking at my beautiful (and over a week late) new sleeping baby boy and there is nothing but joy in my heart.  My challenge now is to not forget the last two weeks and continue on with my life making the same kind of preparations for when I meet the King, as the time is unknown, but the occurrence is certain.  Casting my fear, my anxiety, my hopes, my suffering and my dreams at the feet of His throne as I wait on that day with a purpose.  All the while experiencing encouragement in knowing that the joy I feel today with this new wonderful creation of life next to me, doesn't even come close to the joy that awaits in heaven.