Scars in Heaven

In an earlier blog post I talked about how Jesus has given me His eyes to see how He sees the world rather than the way Breana sees the world. Well, this is a little extension from that story...

The third way Jesus has given me a glimpse of the world through his eyes was through two of our full time missionaries in Malabalay. Blair Bailey just found out a few weeks ago that she is pregnant (SO EXCITED! Please pray for her and her family). This is her first year in missions and she has 4 girls under the age of 10. She is starting to not fit in her clothes because of course she didn’t bring any maternity clothes to the Philippines and my mom happened to send me 3 skirts that I didn’t need, so now Blair has some skirts that will fit her as her baby grows. While she was trying on the skirts she showed me her scars on her belly from her previous pregnancies. It was so intense and so beautiful. She said that her husband told her that she will have these scars in Heaven because she literally gave up her body to give new life. WHAAAAAATTTTTTT?!?! How beautiful is that?! Just as Jesus literally gave of Himself and died on a cross to give us new life and his wounds are considered glorious and he has them in Heaven, Blair and all mothers literally give up their bodies to give new life! These wounds that tell the story of new life are glorious!!!

Yeah, meditate on that this Lent, friends.

Then, when you think pro-life cannot get any better, Sammy Romero, who has been a missionary in the Philippines for over a span of 3 years and is the father of 3 kids under the age of 4, tells me about his reflections on child birth. He said that by the time his wife was pregnant with her third child he really prayed and reflected on natural childbirth. I wish I could relay this all back to you word for word because it was so profound that I was just in shock and I can’t remember everything, but hopefully you will get the gist. Back in the Old Testament after the fall of Adam and Eve, the Lord says that men will have to toil and labor in the field and women will have the pain of childbirth and through the crucifixion Jesus has fulfilled His promise and wiped away the punishment from the stain of the first sin. Now with the men working and toiling in the field, they spend all day laboring to build something or fix something and sure a man could hire someone else to do it and quit, but nothing is more fulfilling then working really hard all day and then seeing the end project – the fulfillment of finishing.  A woman in labor cannot just call it quits and bounce out, she has to endure all of the pain and suffering – but Jesus fulfills his promise by immediately giving the woman the joy of the child. The woman has the fulfillment that after enduring all of that pain – there is a baby!

What a beautiful pro-life and sacred image to reflect on this Lent.

Praise the Lord for women who are open to life and for all those who adopt, we honor you!