Immanuel; Pain Has a Purpose

The verse John 1:5 has been on my mind ever since I found out Teddy had a “mass” on his spine at the 34 week ultrasound.

“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” NKJV

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” NIV

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never extinguish it.” NLT

I wonder why so much pain must announce the arrival for great things.

Why every birth is pain, pain being conquered, pain giving way into life, pain breaking at the bow, pain–

–The dawn is breaking on my pain. 

A baby crying in a basket quickly woven from reeds and pitch. Drawn up out of the water “Moses” to an uncertain future– brought into a palace, raised as a prince, exiled into the desert. Brought back to set the captives free from a cruel master, only to wander more in the desert, but this time, accompanied by the Great Master and a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.

The Patriarch of the last of Tribe of Israel, Benjamin, was brought into the world just as his mother was leaving it. And yet , out of his line came Israel’s first king, Saul, and much later, the great Apostle Paul authoring over half of the New Testament.

Mary, mary. Sweet virgin Mary.

We think of this blessed mother as so blessed, that is her defining adjective is it not?

And yet, 

All her family, and all her friends certainly had their whispers and their doubts. Fleeing to Bethlehem for a census, heavily pregnant on a donkey might’ve even been better than the uninspired gossip of the close associates that hadn’t spoken with angels.

But there was no room in the inn– there was nowhere, not a cot, or a sleeping mat, or perhaps a spare corner in a spare bedroom, for a pregnant woman?

There was a barn. There was hay and a stone manger probably still sticky from grain residue and animal saliva. There was maybe old creaky wood, or old damp stone floors, or dirt floors, never escaping from the dust of the ground and the dust of the hay. And yet from the dust we were first created and from that dust the King of the world was born. And her cries were certainly heard by God for unto her and to us all a savior was born. 

And something broke,

A star upon the horizon

Something unseen before by the human eye, never then nor since

But God came down

Immanuel-God with us. 

And in the racking sobs 

The ones that make no sound but steal all of your breath,

As you shake your head and wordlessly wonder how you’ll make it through

Pain that should kill you instead

Brings life, life that will change the world.