When Child #2 came alone, I chose the Lamaze path of natural childbirth. I convinced myself that if generations of women had birthed babies in nature's way---I could too. You can deep breathe, pant, or hold your breath all day long----you can gaze at a focal point until your eyes cross---you can pace, you can stay in the bed---it does not matter what you do--it still hurts! The best description I ever heard of childbirth was given by Bill Cosby. He told all the men in the crowd to pull their lower lip over their head and they would begin to understand the pain. It is NO DOUBT a miracle, but birthing babies is painful. Side note---I along with most have completely forgotten the "feeling of pain" though, I know it happened.
Mary's childbirth experience began with a 90 mile journey---ON FOOT OR DONKEY. I cannot decide which would be worse. If you are in a car 90 miles does not sound like much at all--try hoofing it--literally. Recently I finished a book about 3 women walking the John Muir trail which is about 200 miles give or take. They spent weeks finishing the journey--with ultra light equipment, freeze dried food, and trail markers all along the path. Mary & Joseph were not so fortunate. Add to that, the trail was known for dangerous wild animals and robbers (wild animals of the human persuasion). It was NOT a journey for the faint of heart.
And then Mary is forced to push that baby out into this cold cruel world in a stable. Historians tell us it was more than likely a cave--but HEY---they kept animals in it. Have you ever been in a cave--they are cold and damp. It was a far cry from today's sterile environment most babies come into the world in.
This was the very first indication of how human Jesus was. He endured the stress of childbirth by squeezing through that birth canal and out into the cold night air in a room with a dirt floor. God did not put Mary to sleep or give her numbing medicines---He allowed her to suffer the pain of childbirth and Jesus the trauma of entering the world being squeezed out by His mother's body. Nine months in a warm dark environment with the gentle swaying of His Mother's movements and as the original sound machine -the human heart sang its lullaby. God came to earth----fully human---in the same manner we all enter it. And thus began His journey as a man---the Son of God---
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel"
Clarification--The King James Version of the Bible (some would say the real Bible) uses the spelling Emmanuel. The English Standard Version and others (NASB, NLT, NKJV, HCSB, NIV) uses the spelling Immanuel.
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I ended up having C-sections with both my children, but I did have excruciating labor pains with my first born. I can't begin to imagine what it took for Mary to come through all of that without help for that pain of childbirth.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Lulu!
The cost of Eve’s sin- we should endure painful childbirth. The best example of the blessing which can come from pain.
DeleteBlessings!
Lulu