The Universal Labour

Well, tommorrow's the big day. Erika will go under the knife and in a matter of minutes we'll be active parents. In her case, having a c-section means no pain at birth and a long painful recovery.

With this on my mind, I noticed the other day, while doing a simple word search through various Bible versions, that the word "pain" in scripture is used over and over in connection with childbirth. The prophets continuously compare the pain of those God will punish with the pain of a woman in labour. This is very interesting given the "curse" that God pronounces upon Eve: "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing". When you consider Paul's allusions to this OT theme in the book of Romans, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time" a very simple theology of pain begins to form. The pain that God increased for Eve and her descendents in order for them to bring forth new life is analogous to the pain that the race of man must suffer in order for the new heavens and earth to be born (so to speak). All pain, in that sense, that has come upon us because of sin is comparable to the pain of childbirth.

It is a desperately hopeful thing to frame suffering in this way. As Christ says in John's gospel, "a woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world".

This sense is very real to me just now as the birth of my own child nears but I know we must not forget the sober words of the prophet Isaiah: "We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth; we have not given birth to people of the world."