I’ll have to tell it from my perspective; after all that is the perspective I am most acquainted with.
As with most stories, it started out with a knock on the gate. Knowing we had a lady in labor down at the clinic we figured they probably wanted someone to come check on her progress. Sure enough, “Her pain has increased, can you come?”.
While we were still a great ways off (“great” being relative as the clinic is only 3 shouts away) we could hear what I will call “a lot of noise” for I could not decipher what kind of noise it was coming from within the clinic. There was a lot of yelling; so much so that I had to wonder if 3 other laboring ladies had arrived. Our escort interrupts my thoughts with, “She is suffering a lot!”. Then I heard a wail and my heart sank “oh no, the baby must have died!”, “but no, wait! Is that not a newborns cry I’m hearing now?”. By the time we reached the door to the hospital room we weren’t sure what we would find on the other side. What we found was 3 dramatic doulas, a frightened Father and a tired but calm mom. Doula #1 was sitting on the bed supporting the mom on a stool in front of her, she was yelling a mix of prayers and words of encouragement in the poor mom’s ear. Doula #2 was sitting in front of the mom ready to catch the baby at any given moment, also yelling out prayers and support. Doula #3 was standing, a Bible in hand, taking turns between reading a Psalm and placing the Bible on the laboring mom’s head while crying out to the Lord on the behalf of her and her baby. The frightened father sat beside the calm mother as he held her hand, every so often the mothers pain became so intense that she let out a scream.
It really was a beautiful picture if you’d just take the time to step back and watch.
It got me to thinking about beauty and what makes things beautiful. Sure, the mountains are beautiful, the ocean is beautiful, the trees, the rivers, sunsets, etc.. Those things are easy to see. But what about the different situations we face or even people. A lot of times in life we see the things right here in front of us; the chaos, the suffering, the brokenness. We can easily get worked up by these things and think we need to get them under control, we forget that true beauty is a process, usually accomplished when we let God be the one in control. God doesn’t see only the right here and now things, he sees beyond; the beautiful things that bloom if we are surrendered to him.
I’m thankful that when God looks at me he doesn’t just see the mistakes, he looks at me through eyes of redemption, for that is who He is -a redeeming God.
-Jacinda Eveleth