A Really Cool Birth Parable...

Mom’s love to tell their birth stories. It is sort of a perverse one upmanship. The stories get more graphic the longer the women talk. I’ve been a witness to (and okay…a participant in) many a conversation between women, young and old, going over the tales of their birth experience…detailed descriptions of the birth process, the pain, the blood, the goo….

Matthew was my first baby….born in Davenport, Iowa. Born through a process that was long...very long...and hurt like hell!!!  I remember reading once that the pain of childbirth registers about as high on the richter scale of discomfort as an amputated limb. Ouch. Yes, I think that is probably an accurate assessment of labor and delivery…..at least my experience with my big headed 9½ pound, strapping baby boy.

So anyway….preggo with baby number 2…Beth….I lived in a new state….and had a new doctor (obviously) It was a podunky area and when I found out I was pregnant with Beth, I had two hospitals and two OB doctors to choose from. Both in different directions, both about 45 minutes away from where I lived. I picked one of the two (eeny meeny miney moe) for no other reason than the fact that the drive was more scenic. He was a nice enough doctor…and I would have been content to stay with him except….

….. sometime between the time I got pregnant and the time I was 8 months along, the other hospital…the one I didn’t pick….opened a brand new birthplace. We drove there to take a look. It was really nice…majorly progressive for the area….and I decided that was where I wanted to have Beth. I would get to stay in the same room for the whole shebang. There was a pull out couch for Dad…and brother to sleep on if they wanted to. It was clean…decorated very spiffy….as compared to the other hospital which was decorated…like a hospital. An old hospital.

But in order to change hospitals, I had to change doctors…and I had to get my medical records…..and I didn’t want to tell the truth. I was a chicken. I didn’t want to hurt the doctor’s feelings (like that was going to happen)….so I lied. I told him my husband had been transferred and we had to move out of state…quickly….could I get my records…quickly. I was 8 months pregnant after all and had no time to waste finding a new doctor in the new location. He did something doctors just don’t do often (are they even allowed to??) He handed the records over to me. He put the manilla envelope in my hot little hand…and I was delighted to find that the records from Matt’s birth were included.

I read them three times. Maybe more. And my birth story…the one I told when I was with other women….well….it was all true….legit. Stuck in transition for a couple hours….pushed for 2 ½….the ripping, the tearing, the stitches….all documented in an official record of his birth…signed by the doctor and everything!!! Top that ladies!!!!

Talk about digressing….but you know how long winded we can be when we launch into those….”you think that was bad” stories about giving birth. But this brings me to the

original point of my post…a most unusual birth story. Actually a parable about a birth story of two twins…Jack and Jill. It was in Preston Eby’s Kingdom of God series. It follows, without further comment, below…..

Imagine the unborn twins Jack and Jill debating whether there is life after the womb. Their small, dark world has been unusually active lately, and both Jack and Jill realize that their days in the womb are numbered. But while Jill argues that there is much more to existence than their life in the womb, Jack refuses to believe in something he has never seen. Then suddenly their world begins to collapse. They feel a tug, intense pressure. There is pain for the first time ever. Jack holds on; Jill slips. Her head is pushed harder and harder into a dark tunnel. There is pain, more pressure. It's happening, thinks Jack, this is the end. And while he holds on for dear life, he sees a piercing light and hears Jill's final cry. Then silence. But while Jack weeps for his sister, Jill lies safely in the arms of her mother. She has been welcomed into a new family and a whole new world—a world of dazzling light, vast distances, and great opportunities. And Jill wishes she could tell Jack that there is indeed life beyond the womb and that it's better than anything imaginable. But she can't, Jack will have to see for himself. IT IS BIRTH THAT BRINGS THE NEW IDENTITY AND THE NEW WORLD.