Birth

During the last several days of my Mom's suffering I was reminded of the process we go through as women when we are laboring to bring forth a baby. Many times at Mom's bedside I caught myself feeling just as I have before while helping a dear friend labor.

It felt odd when I connected those two experiences; birth and death. But the more I think about it and the closer I get to my own journey to heaven, the more I realize they are very similar.

When you watch a woman, someone you love laboring, you wish you could carry her pain. But,you know it is her journey alone to make. You stand near, you watch and pray. You sing and offer comfort as she tries to breathe through her pain. You watch and wait and cry and hold her hand and rub her back and you pray some more. You help her to be brave. And you wait with her.

Then when it is time, when the hard labor is over, you watch the new life as it comes into the world.

That's how it was when Mom died. She labored. At the end of her labor she saw heaven. We who were her midwives got a glimpse of Heaven through her eyes. I believe what she was was as bright and blinding as a newborn's first vision of this earth.I will share that story soon.

I found this beautiful video on a friend's blog recently. It is a woman who is singing as she is laboring to bring forth her 10 pound son. She is singing the 23rd Psalm. I hope when it is my turn to complete the labor of this life I will be able to sing like she does.