"Labor" Day 
By Mike Rule

My recent experiences through the death of my mom have left me pondering a whole lot before the Lord. Over time, I hope to share some of those reflections with you as the Lord ministers to me on them. Throughout the whole experience I have been struck with the similarity between childbirth and death.

As I sat with mom and ministered to her physical needs, I felt very helpless. It was like watching the sands run down through an hour glass with no way of turning the thing over to have "more time." It was hard to see her laboring and struggling as she went through the transition from life as we know it in this realm, to true life in the next. I was haunted by a deep sense of familiarity as I went through this process with her, but I could not immediately put my finger on what it was reminiscent of.

As the end was drawing near, I was talking with my dad outside her hospital room. Suddenly it struck me how similar this death experience was to childbirth. The familiarity stemmed from the memories of being in the labor and delivery room with my wife. I was there to coach, encourage, and offer perspective while ministering to as many practical and physical needs as I could.

The Lord has since shown me how death and birth are not so dissimilar. A baby makes a transition from the only realm it has ever known into the "unknown." Likewise, through death a human makes a transition from the only realm he or she has known into another "unknown." The difference is which side of the womb we are on.

In childbirth, those of us on the outside of the mother’s womb are receiving a living being. In death, the living are inside the womb of the world, passing on (once again, delivering) life. From the human perspective, it is easier to rejoice in childbirth when you have a living, warm, soft baby to hold; and it is hard to rejoice in death when all we are left with is the cold empty husk of someone we dearly love. Yet true life has been birthed on the other side of this present womb. From God’s perspective, through childbirth He gives life to us, and through death He receives that life back unto Himself.

I praise God that though the next world is unknown to us, we still have the promises and assurance from our Lord Jesus Christ. No eye has seen nor ear heard, but we can have confidence in the fact that: "It’s going to be GOOD"…because Jesus is there, and so is our Father!