I’ve been thinking of a way to alienate the male readership a little more, so I thought I’d shift gears to some baby talk. It’s almost criminal that the midwives moved my due date two weeks back—as in, further away– but my husband insists that we’ll have a mid-February baby anyway. If he’s correct, remember that you heard it here first; if he’s wrong, try not to think about what they did to false prophets in the Old Testament.

The older ladies in the church are worried that I won’t make it to February, let alone March 3rd. Let’s just say that the maternity clothes are shrinking. Very strange.

I try not to hold a myopic view of life. This means I realize that while we’re having some exciting times here, not everyone, everywhere shares our joy and circumstance. But, it’s time to hunker down. (Sorry for the slang phrase; too much TV during last year’s hurricanes.) It’s time to focus, take inventory, wash the car seat….and think of a name!

So, of course, I have The Baby Radar on. I like to gawk at newborns, reread labor techniques, and research herbs that might help me have my first pitocin-free delivery. I scroll Baby Name websites late at night. I also enjoy exchanging birth stories with mom’s at the park and talking to my older kids about who-is-going-to-be-in-charge of (fill-in-the-blank). And when it is all quiet, sometimes I think about how and if it is all going to be OK.

In Love Has a Price Tag, Elisabeth Elliot writes, “Ever since the Garden of Eden was sullied by evil it has been an unhappy and an unstable world. Has it ever been right to bring a child into such a world? For the Christian it is right–a thousand times right. For it is the will of God that married people accept the responsibility of children. It is the will of God that we live in the world–this world of light and darkness, of gladness and suffering–for it is this world that Jesus Christ came to redeem. Christianity, alone among the religions of the world, looks steadfastly at the facts, whatever they may be, and says there is an ultimate explanation, an ultimate purpose, a glorious answer.”

That answer, of course, is found in the Cross. This is our hope. Isaiah 40:11 assures, He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

This, this is the victory of the grave;
here is death’s sting,
that it is not strong enough,
our strongest wing
But what of His who like a Father pitieth?
His Son was also, once, a little thing….
~Charlotte Mew