Our dear friend is expecting a baby this week. We’ve been talking about the joy ahead- meeting Baby. It makes me think of Mary anticipating the arrival of Jesus. And it reminds me of our waiting as Christians for our Lord to come back. This is the beautiful season of Advent- commemorating our Lord’s first arrival and anticipating his second.
Anticipation is sweet when you’re looking forward to something certain and something good. Think of the difference between a pregnant mother and a woman with a tumor. The mother waits in hope, seeing her body swell with child, and encouraged by the movement of her baby. The sick woman waits in dread, seeing the enlargement. The mother knows that her pain will give a new human being life. The sick woman fears the tumor will take her life.
Just as a mother feels the stirrings of life in their womb, so we feel the stirring of the the life of God in our hearts. As a baby kicks inside a mother, so the Holy Spirit kicks our conscience when we’re about to make that mean retort, or harbor that spiteful thought. He is active inside us reminding us of his Presence and encouraging us that someday we will meet our Lord.
“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.” Galatians 5:16
“set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” 2 Corinthians 1:22
I wonder if the word delivery in reference to childbirth (why don’t we call it babybirth?) has a twofold meaning: a woman delivers a baby from her body to the world, and a woman is delivered from pregnancy.
Of course, a mother has some dread of the process of labor and delivery which precedes the joy of meeting her baby, just as we have some dread of the dying process which precedes meeting our Lord. But the anticipation, the waiting in hope, knowing we will see Jesus, makes it bearable. Just as a mother soon forgets the agony of birth when she holds her baby, so we will quickly forget the dark pathway of death when we see our Lord.
As a mother delightedly inspects her new baby, taking in the completeness, the sweetness, touching the hands and feet, so we will delight in seeing Jesus in his completeness as he takes the rulership of Earth. We will touch him, and marvel at him, seeing his hands and feet that were wounded for us. We will celebrate and be happy.
Every mother looks forward to her body being changed from her pregnant, uncomfortable, awkward state after delivery. Similarly, we look forward to our limited bodies being exchanged for strong and eternal bodies.
“… when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
Let’s live this week in sweet anticipation of seeing God’s promises become reality!