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Gestation for Eternity...

Today is our baby's due date. 
Katie and I are on pins and needles waiting to meet this newest member of our family. Katie is aware of every little contraction and twinge, wondering if maybe that is the onset of labor. Or no, maybe that one is! It's a very unique season of advent in the Read household.

The doctors gave us a due date of Sept 21 but in all reality "about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32). So we wait to see the timing that God has picked out for us, knowing that His timing will be perfect, and knowing that the doctors should have just given us a ballpark (late September) time instead of a specific date (it's okay medical staff, we forgive you). 

All this anticipation has me thinking: what if God gave us a gestational period so that we could better understand how His 2nd coming will be? 

Here are some similarities that I believe God gave us so that we can better understand what heaven will be like:

Baby Boaz is very much alive in Katie's womb right now. He is practicing breathing, he is eating, kicking, squirming, hearing my voice (albeit muffled through the water around his ears), and can even see some changes in lighting as Katie walks from a well-lit room into a dark room. But when Boaz is born he is going to experience life to its true potential! He will be breathing air on his own, he will be able to taste food and not just digest it, he will be able to move about the entire earth and not just be confined to a womb, he will hear my voice clearly and see my face and experience the world for all it's many senses. 

We are all spiritual beings who are very much alive right now--we can taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8) but when we get to heaven we will realize that we are tasting and seeing in senses that we didn't even know existed while we were on earth. We can kind of hear God's voice now, but it is muffled through the world that is wrapped around us. When we get to heaven we will get to hear God's voice clearly and see His face. 

Doctors can use all the latest pieces of technology, they can study, read, and predict all they want, but ultimately they cannot know when this baby will come. We can make predictions of when the world will end or when Jesus will come back but ultimately, we have no clue. God's timing is perfect and we have to wait on that. 

Nine months seems like a long time, especially when three of those months are through the hottest parts of the year! But ultimately nine months is a pretty short blip on the map when you consider the next 90 years this kid will have in front of him once he is born! Life on this earth may feel like a lot of time to do something with and it may even feel like this is all there is to life, so eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die (Ecc 8:15). But in reality, this whole existence on earth--this whole life thing, as far as we know it--is all just preparation for the real deal that happens when we are born again into everlasting life with God! 

This baby will come one of two ways: either it is God's time for him to come out or the doctors will come and take him away through a C-section. Whether it is our time to go meet God or whether He comes back for us ahead of time, we will be born into the next life--and what a day of rejoicing that will be! 

Comments

  1. I love the similarities that you've shared! Gestational periods are extremely useful and the time at the end of that period is awe inspiring!!

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