Expectant with Promise

What does one do in the awkward in between of being given a promise and waiting for its time of fulfillment? I've been thinking about this a lot more with being pregnant. All the hopes and anticipation but also the questions of what will it actually look like? How can one begin to predict what a whole new season will look like when one has never walked that way before? How can one really know what to expect when what you had only imagined starts to become reality? 

You can dream all day long about what the next phase will look like but you can never really be ready until you're actually in it. The apostle Paul spent many years dreaming and praying of going to Rome to encourage the believers there. He did get there in the end - as a prisoner in chains. In God's infinite wisdom, he brought Paul to a place where he could minister and encourage many in Rome. To this day, Paul's dream of having an inheritance among the Gentiles lives on as many people like myself continue to read his letter to the Romans! But do you think that's what he envisioned in his prayers? 

As I've started to share our good news with local friends, I've had some interesting responses. One close friend told me that many local women simply don't announce that they are pregnant as they are afraid that someone might be envious of their good news and cast the "evil eye" on them. 

I took the advice and didn't broadcast the news at the gym. Eventually, once I started showing, some of the women came up to me congratulating me. One of them said that with her first child she had stopped going to the gym at about 4 or 5 months, not because she physically couldn't, but because the other women were so critical and judgmental. 

One friend said she had a very important question: have you been moisturizing your belly? I was not expecting that question!! Not that it's a bad idea to stay ahead of the stretch marks, but why was such importance placed on it? She went on to explain that her sister had a whole moisturizing routine to keep her belly glowing, similar to what one would do for a facial routine. 

Later through multiple hospital appointments, we began to pick up on some of the general trends in the culture when it comes to giving birth - how most women would prefer a c-section (even if it's not needed), how the baby is taken away immediately after delivery so that that the mom can rest, how generally breast- feeding is not encouraged or wanted. Why? I began to realize that the underlying answer was often one of fear - afraid of losing their beauty, afraid of their husbands being traumatized by watching them go through the pain and mess of a natural delivery, and ultimately afraid of losing their value. 

With all the other adjustments and changes a new mom must be going through it breaks my heart that all of this shame and social pressure is piled high on top as well! Yet no matter what culture or background we come from, we have all had to walk through a similar experience - the process of dreaming and anticipating something to happen. As the expected promise starts to take shape and fill out, we often start to feel uncomfortable and restless. It affects our daily lives and quite literally changes us. Other people might look in on the process and pass judgement on us or not understand what we are talking about. Yet the baby - the promise - keeps growing and it will come to full-term. Not because we are perfect, but because we have a God who will accomplish what He said He will do. 

And when the time of fulfillment comes, we will be ready by the grace of God.