count and discount

I can't recall the precise train-wreck of thought that led to the conversation, but over Christmas weekend, I talked to my mom about child birth. I asked her: (1) whether it hurt like a bugger to give birth to my brother (the first-born); and (2) why in the world did she subject herself to more and decide to have more kids.

My mom more or less answered: (1) yes, hurt very much, never knew anything could hurt so much; (2) loved him, right away, very much, never knew could love a stranger so much, forgot about the pain. Forgot about the pain? Just plain forgot the excruciating pain of squeezing a melon out of an orifice typically the size of a dime?

A C-section, albeit somewhat gross in its own right, sounds a lot less painful than a natural birth. What if we can C-section other parts of life? What if we had the option of drawing a curtain and feeling no pain through dark times? Would we take it? Should we?

It seems that God intends for us to experience a natural birth life; C-sections are man-made alternatives. There was no C-section available for Jesus in Gethsemane. Likewise, most of us do not have (or do not choose to draw) that anesthetizing curtain as families splinter, children are born unhealthy, parents fall ill, friends pass and dreams evaporate.

In reality, my mom didn't forget about the pain. She acutely remembers (and gladly detailed) the pain and the precise number of hours of pain she endured. But pain (or the fear of it) bowed before love, a mightier anesthesia than man could ever invent. So it was with Jesus. Love both counts and discounts the costs. And it has given me life both here and hereafter.