Upon reading a positive pregnancy test for our fourth baby, I felt at once so many unfamiliar emotions. Never before had I considered the timing of a child.
This seemed, if I’m honest, untimely.
Who has 3 “geriatric” pregnancies in 4 years? We hadn’t yet expanded our home. Daniel had plans to buy a pick up truck. Adelaide was still nursing. We were faithful NFP followers. How could I have been off for one cycle?
I realize this is not the experience for some. Conceiving and carrying a child does not come so easily for many of my peers especially.
I, too, had experienced this, as well as loss when I was planning a baby on my own terms. How could I go from having none when I wanted more, to having more when I frankly hadn’t imagined having any?
Timing, I suppose, is everything – or yet another idol I had to lay down in front of the cross.
Some close to me consider it reckless. That’s all right. I’m not here to please people.
I doubt Sarah felt Isaac’s entrance was on time. Even Leah must have questioned so many sons when her husband loved her sister more. Elizabeth retreated for some months when John leapt in her womb at her old age. And Mary surely questioned “How can this be?”
But these women weren’t just bearing children. They were raising nations. They were bringing the good news to people through their prophet sons. They were bringing salvation to the world through their offspring.
See, the timing of the here and now doesn’t look the same to us as it does to Him. Whether it’s a life, or death, or singleness or marriage, or whatever – what we know now is a dim image in the mirror compared to the fullness we will know on the other side of eternity.
A baby is only a baby for a year. Then a baby grows – and every moment of that life is another opportunity to be a living temple of the Holy Spirit, bringing Heaven to Earth.
He – the author of time itself – knows the perfect timing for this child – just as He knows the perfect timing for your blessings and your trials. If we are submitted to His will, don’t we trust its timing in our lives?
“He makes everything beautiful in its time.” – Eccl 3:11
Beautifully said. And I can relate to some of these feelings. Thank you for sharing.