On Christmas Eve this year our family received the present of a lifetime when our son Joel was born. He arrived five days late and as the anticipation mounted on December 23rd my five year-old Josh asked me, “Mommy, could Baby be born on Christmas?” I said, “Sure, Josh.” He looked at me thoughtfully and said, “Well, I guess there can be two Baby Jesuses.” While Joel entered the world with a lot less fanfare than Baby Jesus did, his arrival came with enough drama that if a few shepherds had showed up we probably wouldn’t have noticed.
We arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight anticipating a smooth, natural birth. We had done everything right to prepare- read all the right books, had good prenatal care, even working with a midwife who supported our desire for a medication-free birth. I hate to admit I developed quite strong opinions on the superiority of the kind of birth we had chosen and felt that God would show His approval for our plan by giving us a smooth delivery. Isn’t that how God is most glorified? By making things go as His followers have planned? I don’t know why I was so quick to forget the lessons I learned through the infertility process- that God is often most glorified by our attitude when things are hard. And once again I found God humbling me in an intensely personal way as after many, many hours of labor with a baby who refused to get into the right position for birth, my son entered the world through a c-section delivery.
In that moment all my unspoken ideas that I had some kind of control over the process of birth went out the window. I also learned shortly after Joel’s birth that I had no control over my lower body as nurses and my husband became my only way of getting in and out of the bed until I began to heal. Talk about humbling!
I am so thankful for the safe delivery of my son and I have a new appreciation for modern medicine that preserved both of our lives. I am also amazingly thankful that God chose to teach me once again that He is in control and will use whatever means He needs to keep me humble. And in spite of my inconsistency, He remains faithful and we will forever be thankful for this precious Christmas gift.