CHILDBIRTH

Have you ever read something in the bible, something that you have read before but this time it struck you how wonderfully God describes himself in his word? I did that with this passage. After I read it I wondered how I could ever have missed it but I have read it several times and never really seen what was there, never really thought about it or took it to heart. My faith has been deepened and my understanding has grown. It seems so simple and clear now that I think I must have beer really thickheaded not to have seen it before. In fact I almost passed over this entire passage because it just didn’t speak to me. I read and reread it and nothing really jumped out, until it did.

John 16:16–22 NASB95

“A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

I read this passage and I understood that Jesus was telling the disciples to hold on for a little while. I thought about how a little while can seem such a long time. I came to verse 20 and it said

John 16:20 NASB95

“Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.

It sure does seem like the people who love Jesus and who try to do the right thing have reason to weep and to lament. I see the way the world is going and the direction we are not just traveling but charging along at a breakneck speed. Sin is being honored and righteousness is being condemned. If you take a stance against premarital sex, drunkeness or lying or almost any other sin you are seen as prudish and old fashioned. Trying to behave in a way that used to be considered moral is now considered to be close minded. I remember a time when if I asked someone to stop cursing in a restaurant because my wife and children were there most of the restaurant would have stood up and applauded. The person I confronted would have been embarrassed and I would have looked like a hero. Now I think that most people would laugh and tell me to sit down and mind my own business and I would look like a fool. It does seem like the world is having everything its own way and the Christians are ducking and covering today more than ever. We seem to be on the defensive just for doing what used to be called normal. It does in fact seem like the world is rejoicing and we are grieving.

But then there are these wonderful verses.

John 16:21–22 NASB95

“Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

Now I don’t know what it feels like to give birth to a child but I have it on good authority that it hurts. The closest I have been is to be in the room when it happens. I can’t imagine what it feels like and I don’t intend to try but I do think I have an idea of what God means when he says that after the birth, when the woman holds her baby she forgets the pain because it is overwhelmed by the joy she feels in that moment. You see I have seen a woman drenched in sweat and exhausted beyond belief look down at a little baby with the most wonderful smile in the world.

The same face that just moments ago was twisted in pain and agony is now home to the most beautiful, glowing smile that lights up the whole room. No one with any sense argues that childbirth doesn’t hurt. It is obvious that it hurts. Yet some women do it again and again. It seems that they are willing to endure the pain so that they can get the child. It seems that they think it is worth it. I have heard women in labor swear that they will never, ever do this again. I have heard the same women talk fondly of having another baby. I know that the pregnancy and the birth is often hard. I know that there is pain and there is lots of discomfort. Being a guy I have never experienced it myself, I can’t tell you anything about it. But I can tell you that I know lots of women who have done it more than once, on purpose, all for the joy that is to come.

I have been told that childbirth is the most excruciating pain most women ever feel. Yet woman after woman voluntarily goes through this process just to have a baby. If nothing else told us what a child was worth then this act of volunteering to get pregnant and have a child should tell us how valuable that child is.

Now I am sure that while it is going on the pain of having a child seems like it lasts forever. I know that the inconveniences of pregnancy seem like they last forever because my wife told me so. I think she said that it lasts For-Ev-Er.

The thing is, even though it seem like forever it really isn’t. In fact, the pregnancy lasts about 9 months and the childbirth lasts a matter or hours but the child that results lasts the rest of your life. Even though they grow up and move away they are still your children and they still affect your life. Even those children who don’t live long enough to grow up and move away change your life forever. You will never be the same and your life will never be the same. The pain and the inconvenience of pregnancy and childbirth pass. They fade into the past and are usually not lifechanging events. But having a child, changes you. It changes your life in every way a life can be changed. It changes you mentally, physically, emotionally, financially and any other way you can think of. After having a child, loving a child, raising a child, you can never be the same again, and you wouldn’t want to be.

How wonderful that Jesus uses that example to demonstrate this life. The time between when you accept Jesus as lord and when you are actually living with him and being in his presence may be short or it may be long. Kind of like the time between conception and birth, we don’t really know when everything is going to happen, we have some clues to point the way but even if you are a doctor you are just guessing. We know the baby is coming and we have a good idea what to expect but we sure don’t have all the details nailed down.

In the same way we know that Jesus is coming back for us and that he is coming back to right the wrongs and make everything like it should. We don’t know exactly when, but we do have some clues and a basic timeline. We don’t know exactly what everything will be like but we have a pretty good idea of the big picture because Jesus told us about it. In fact he was just telling his disciples about it in this passage.

Right now it seems like the world is having everything its own way. It seems like they are winning and we are losing but that is only temporary. It is like pregnancy or childbirth, it only lasts for a time. It may be unpleasant and it may look bad, it may seem like it is taking forever, but it isn’t. In the same way all of the injustice and unfairness that we see in the world today is temporary. Like comparing the hours of childbirth to the changes that child makes for the rest of your life makes the time of the birth, no matter how painful and difficult seem to be a small amount of time.

So, in the same way, the time of struggle and injustice in the world today will seem small and fading once we begin our trip into eternity. Suppose the first child to accept Jesus as lord lived for 100 years, then they died and 2000 years later they were still waiting on the second coming all of that time would still be a short time compared with just the first part of eternity.

For all of human history mothers have demonstrated that the joy of having a child was greater and longer lasting than the pain of childbirth. Here Jesus is promising that the joy of eternity with Christ is greater and longer lasting than the struggles and tribulations of this life.

John 16:22 NASB95

“Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

The joy of seeing Jesus again will be so great that the pain and struggle of this life will be forgotten, and just like the joy of having a child nothing can take that joy from you. Even if your child disappoints you or even if they are mentally of physically challenged the joy you experience because of bringing that child into this world is never really lost. You may struggle enough that you don’t really see the joy all of the time, but it is still there, its impact on your life is still there, you are still changed, you are not and never will be again the person you would have been without having had that child.

My grandmother outlived all but one of her children. When I was still very young I asked her about the children that she lost when they were little, lost to car accidents. She told me she missed them, she told me it was very hard and that God had helped her through it. What she never told me was that she regretted having had those children. She had strong memories of love and affection for those children even though they didn’t live too long. She never wanted to take it back and never wished they had not been born. The pain was strong even all of those years later, but so was the love.

Knowing my grandmother and knowing my God I can say this as well. She missed out on a lot of time with them here on earth, but now she has an eternity in heaven to make up for it. I am convinced that everything she might have lost here on earth will be small and distant compared with everything she will gain in heaven. The time she missed out on here is tiny compared with the time she will have there. I think that is the point Jesus is trying to make.

I know that life here can be tough. I know that there is pain and there is suffering. No one is saying that there is not pain or that the pain doesn’t hurt. What Jesus is saying is hang in there, this is not all there is. The pain that you are feeling right now is temporary. The suffering you are going through today seems long and it seems like it will never end but take courage, it will end. Just like childbirth when you are caught up in the middle of it nothing else seems to exist. Everything else fades into the background in the urgency of the moment. Pain is like that, it takes over and it takes control. But it is temporary.

Jesus is assuring the disciples, and us, that it will come to an end. Not only that but after it is over the joy and the goodness that comes next will be so complete and so longlasting that this pain will fade into the background and be only a faint memory. In that day you won’t have to guess and you wont have to try to figure it out.

Paul said that now we see as in a cloudy mirror, in other words we see an image but we can’t make out the details, it’s not clear and it’s hard to understand, but then we will see clearly. Jesus says that he has spoken to us in figurative language now but then he will tell us plainly.

John 16:23–33 NASB95

“In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Now we are in the middle of the pain, we are surrounded by confusion and we don’t quite know what is going on and how or when it will all end. Now it seems like that is all there is because we are in the middle of it but there is a time that is coming when all of that will be over. Now we have a lot of questions and a lot of confusion but a time is coming when it will all be made clear. Now we have ideas about God and opinions about God, now we think we understand and we struggle to understand but then we will see God and we will know. Now we pray and we hope we are praying right and we hope God will answer our prayers but then we will know how to pray and what to pray and we will pray just exactly as we should and God will answer all of our prayers.

Now it is a struggle, we struggle against the world and from where we are now and what we can see now it may even seem as if the world is winning, that we are losing and that it will go on and on forever. But that is not the truth. The truth is that Jesus has already struggled with the world and he has already won. He has already overcome the world and the world has lost. The battle is already over and decided, we just have to hang in there until we can see it too. Jesus is really just trying to encourage us not to give up and not to give in. How tragic it would be if you you had been a soldier who surrendered to the enemy in the field after the enemy officers had already surrendered to your army’s officers.

On April 9th 1865 general Lee surrendered to general Grand officially ending the civil war. 6 more battles were fought after that surrender including what many consider the last battle of the civil war, the battle of Palmito Ranch fought on May 12-13, over a month after the war was over. 300 confederates defeated over 800 union troops so that the side that had already surrendered over a month before won the last battle of the civil war. Private John Williams, a member of the winning side was thought to be the last person to die in the civil war over a month after the other sides general surrendered to his general. The war was over, the winner already determined but the struggle still went on and there were still casualties. That kind of reminds me of the struggle between good and evil, the war is won, the outcome is determined, it is finished but the struggle seems to go on, the casualties keep piling up even though the war is won. Hang in there, we cannot lose, we cannot be defeated. We win. Even if it might not seem like it just yet. The war is over and soon it will be time to rest, and the rest will be sweeter than anything ever has been or ever again will be.