Sunday, August 24, 2008

Top Five: Childbirth And The Second Coming

Antonin David Jan Hamstra

I know it's been done before, but, being a new father, I can't resist. Here's a list of some ways that pregnancy and childbirth is like unto the second coming of Christ.
  1. Just when you think it's finally about to happen, you enter a new stage of waiting.
  2. While you're waiting, you have work to do.
  3. Things are going to get more intense and painful before it's over.
  4. It's the end of the world as you know it, and the beginning of another.
  5. He comes to be lord of your life.
What I did not expect was the feeling that my son completely belongs in my life, as if he were always a part of our family. I feel deep gratitude to God for the gifts of life and procreation and to my wife for bearing and delivering our son. I have done nothing to deserve this grace, and now it owns me.

1 comment:

  1. David,
    Your words, like some poetry, speak from the deepest experience of the human heart, informed by love, joy, and hope.
    Their truth is to be known and understood through the same, with rationality only the means by which they are expressed in language.

    It seems to me that it would be good for us to keep that in mind when we read Jeus' deeds and words when he encountered humanity, in all its joys, stuggles, brokeness and sorrow.

    Thanks,

    FC

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