Theology and Pregnancy

I have been thinking some theologically philosophical things this past week. I haven't quite formulated them into something readable yet, so this blog may be choppy. I'm hoping that writing about it will help in make sense in my mind. You may think this blog is an example of an over analyzer and you might be right. I'm still writing it anyway.

As I approach the end of pregnancy, I've been thinking about creating life. As a Christian, I obviously believe that God was involved in the whole creation of the world, including every person in it, including me and Jude. In the Bible, we read that at the creation of man the Trinity got together and said "Let us make man in our own image." Thus people are created in the image of God. Typically, most people do not assume God looks human. It's more of this spiritual need within all humans to worship God. Clearly, some people try to fill this need with a variety of other things, but bottom line, humans have the ability to reason and worship God.

The parts of this story that are sticking out to me are the unity of the Trinity- being all God and yet separate at the same time and making us in their image. In some ways I think the creation of life between a husband and a wife rather parallels this concept. For one thing, the Bible says that at the point of marriage and consummation, the husband and wife no longer are two separate people, but rather become one. This is kind of a mirror image of the Trinity. 3 people with different jobs who are actually one. Marriage is 2 people with different roles who have become 1. I still don't understand the mystery of the Trinity and in many ways don't understand the mystery of marriage.

This unity brings me to the next piece. The Trinity, in their union, came together at creation to create man in their own image to worship them with reason and relationship. When a husband and wife come together, they create a new person in their own image for essentially the same relationship reasons. I would say not for worship, but who doesn't love the idea of the little boy who can't wait to grow up to be just like daddy. If we're honest, we all do worship our parents in one way or another.

Children have always amazed me because they are literally a representation of the unity of the parents. They model a mom and dad who are one. They are a perfect blend of both parents. They come in the image of their parents. Michael and I literally cannot wait to see who's eyes Jude gets, among other things. He will be made in our image. His personality will be formed after our image as well. Unfortunately this comes with good a bad as our children pick up just as many cute quirks as bad habits from their parents. Still, Jude's future strengths and flaws will be based off of our image.

Anyway, like I said, I'm having trouble really getting my thoughts together on this one. The point is that I see some parallels between creation of man and the creation of a child that I had not previously thought about. In a way, I guess it helps me understand the emotions of the Trinity at creation. I mean when Jude is born, all we will see is possibility. We will be filled with love and wonder at what we created. We will think it is 'good'. The truth is, that we are bringing Jude in to a fallen world and there will come a time when we will have to hold him accountable for making the wrong choices. He will experience pain because we are bringing him in to a fallen world. He will not be born a Christian so Michael and I will have to cry out to God daily to call our son to salvation. This is exactly how I imagine the Trinity felt. They had created this amazing, beautiful thing called humans. There was so much possibility there, and they were filled with love. Yet the world became fallen, and God had to watch some of us fall in to sin knowing we will never become Christians and some of us sin knowing it would lead us to Christ.

What does this mean for parents? Well God spends his time calling his children home. He forgives them when they turn away from Him. He loved them enough to die for them. He sanctifies them. He holds his children to a high standard, yet is understanding when they fall short. Parents should do essentially the same things. We should always be there for our children. We should be calling them towards righteousness and teaching them who Christ is. We should forgive easily! Christ never lays a guilt trip on us! Are there consequences, sure. However, he never milks an apology for all it's worth. Love them enough to die for them. I think that should be the daily picking up of our cross. Dying to the fact I want to sleep in. Dying to the fact that all my non-mom friends are going out for girls night. I'm not saying girls night won't happen, but it won't happen every week. Or guys night depending on the case. We are to help them understand how to make good choices and WANT to do the right thing. We should hold our children to a high standard, yet understand they won't make it. We should love them where they are, at the age they are, with the capabilities and understanding they have at that age. Christ expects different qualities and understanding from a veteran Christian than a new Christian. Same for children.

These thoughts are still swimming in my head. Thank you for reading this far if you have. I would love to hear comments if you have them!