Labor of Love

I think this may be my last post in this theme of thoughts concerning what it means to conceive, how we are to do so, Who we are to look to as Christians to provide fulfillment for these longings, lead us into them, and to help us with our disappointments if our dreams do not play out in our lives as we'd hoped. I know that being a parent has so deepened and enriched my understanding of God as my Abba, and of myself as His child. But I've wondered how my views of our relationship would be different if I'd not been blessed with Motherhood.

This beautiful video below gives tribute to the labor of love that accompanied the birth of our Savior. I can share in this as I remember the painful hours I struggled to bring my sons into this world. But I also know that the births of my daughters into our lives by way of adoption came with their own pains, gasps of travail, sleepless anticipation, cries of joy.

And what of beautiful Joseph? Watch him kneeling there, doing whatever he can to help as he is in so many ways helpless. Look at the amazement and joy in his face as he first gazes upon this baby, Lord of all in human likeness, whom he will train up in the years to come. There is more than the miracle of birth on his face, there is witness to the divine. He is a wonder to behold.



I sincerely hope that my understanding of who my Savior is would not be the less if I'd never been a mother. I think of *Amy Carmichael, and I like to think I would have led a life something like her's. I love Jesus - more than anyone. So if He'd chosen for Himself to be my all in all without a family just as He is with them, well He would be. Whatever our roles that we are ultimately called to as His servants, let them be not as we will but as He wills, and let them all be labors of love.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I Cor 15:57-58

*A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot