Tag: hope

Waiting for a Baby

I am glued to my phone right now waiting on news about my new nephew being born in Japan. These last few weeks seem to be ticking by as we await the arrival of this new bundle of joy. Though I won’t get to see him until he is significantly grown, I am anxious to get to see what he looks like and be assured he is healthy through FaceTime chats and Facebook messenger. And I’m just his Aunt — Imagine how his mother must feel!

In some ways, the nearly 4 years since I had my last baby feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then in our life and ministry. I mean, I’ve learned a language and set up a life on the other side of the world. Not to mention that that baby is in pre-school now and breaking my heart with how grown up he is getting. When I pause to think, however, I remember what that feels like to wait for a baby. There is fear mixed with wonder, joy mingled with anxiety. There is dread about the coming day and dreams about the future. When labor begins, there is pain and a narrowed focus. It’s time to get serious about bringing this baby into the world.

Waiting for Eternity

The Scriptures compare this temporal life to childbirth (Romans 8:22). We are waiting with mixed feelings of fear and wonder, joy and anxiety. There is sometimes dread about the days we have to endure on this earth, but we certainly have much to dream about. Even the awe-inspiring plump-red cheeks of a newborn baby is nothing in comparison to what awaits us in glory. What a thought!

Just as birth entails pain and requires a narrowed focus, so do our lives waiting for Jesus to return. There is immeasurable hardship because of sin’s stain on the world. We will have to endure what feels like a never-ending slew of suffering, but we do not carry these griefs as those who have no hope. We know that our ultimate treasure and our hope is other-wordly. We must narrow our focus with eternity in mind. Laboring in the here and now, we rejoice in the abundant blessings that are to come. We endure the pain of today with the promise of endless, joy-filled tomorrows spent in the presence of God.

In the end, it’s all worth it.

There will be times where the labor feels light and what is required of us is little. Other times, the groaning will be great and we get by only by the strength of God. Sometimes, we will forget about the glory that is coming and only suffer with gritted teeth and white knuckled perseverance because faithfulness means something even when we forget what.

There’s so much good coming, friends. Though we have pain in the here and now, God brings blessings here too. The laboring is painful and intense, but we have respites by His grace. In the end, when we are looking back from glory on what life and labor once was, it will seem distant. It will seem brief — just a blip on the radar on the way to eternity.

All our troubles of that time will be long forgotten. Just like my sister-in-law’s will be when she holds her newborn sometime in the next few days. If you need me until then, I’ll have my face in my phone.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

I “make” God big in my life when I set my focus on my eternal future as I labor for Him in the here and now. 

What helps you keep your focus on eternity?

Talk to me in the comment section below.