Motherhood And The Gospel: A 5-Day DevotionalНамуна

A Signpost for Joy

Someone is purposefully holding you together (Col. 1:17). Both you and your unborn child belong to the Lord; you are his imagers, and you exist for his glory. As God’s imagers, we have the unparalleled privilege and responsibility of representing him to the watching cosmos in every capacity he has designed for us.

Could it be that the Creator of all things had something wonderful in his mind when he made man and woman? Something that shows us how glorious he is? God could have charged the six-winged seraphim with representing him to the watching cosmos, yet he fashioned a man out of dust and a woman from the man’s rib. Our mammalian lungs could have just simply filled with oxygen like those in the animal realm, yet the Lord chose to breathe into the man his breath of life. Something profound is going on here—something beyond what we can see with the retinas and corneas in our eyes. We would do well to take more time to think about such things, following the dust in the sunbeams up to the sun.

Where else can we go to learn about the One for whom we were made but to God’s very Word? Through God’s gift of medicine, a world of knowledge about fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth is at our disposal to help us nurture both our own bodies and those blooming within our wombs. But when we are looking for spiritual nourishment, we have to dig into the Bible. The entire human experience of childbirth is a signpost for overwhelming joy and realities that will endure forever.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you often stop to think of yourself and your children as bearing the image of God and not just the image of you and/or your parents?
2. What are some practical ways that you reflect the image of God to others?
3. Can you think of places in this Bible where you've noticed the concept of childbirth, whether metaphorically or otherwise? 

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that you have created me in your image, taking great care with every detail of my being. At every moment, you are holding all things together. Thank you for your attentiveness and for your unceasing care for your creation. As I know and seek to understand this, help me to be a faithful representation of you to the watching world—realizing that all things, including my nurture and care for children, is a way to bring you the glory you deserve.