Scott Baker
Micah 4:8-13
Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?
In a prophecy about the exile facing Jerusalem, the word of God comes to the people comparing them to a woman in labor. Now, during Advent, labor metaphors are not uncommon. We typically encounter them in the narratives about Elizabeth and Mary, though I’m not sure we dwell on them as anything other than moments along the way. My wife, Beki, is pregnant now with twins, so this is a metaphor with some currency for me right now.
Labor, as spoken in Micah, is not a fleeting moment, but a state of being. Of waiting, and enduring the pain. And it’s richer than merely illustrating pain. See, when you’re in labor you’re at the end of a plan that began long ago. When you’re in labor, you’re in the middle of a time-stopping reality that shuts out everything else. When you’re in labor, you’re at the beginning of the life to come. It’s a part of something much larger. Not one of us got here but through the pain and enduring of someone else’s labor, someone else’s plan.
And so it is in Advent. The pain of the moment is a part of the deliverance begun long ago. It is our reality, but it is not our eternal reality. And it makes a way. On the other side…
“There you shall be rescued, there the LORD will redeem you from the hands of your enemies.”
Prayer: Sovereign God, though we know that our place in your story has a past and a future, we experience only the now. And now many of us are groaning in the pains of labor as we await delivery and deliverance. Bring your peace to our pain and help us to live in the in-breaking kingdom of your reign even as we await its fullness. Amen.
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