A year has passed today, but the memories are seared into my very soul. That Finance Committee meeting and the contractions that started in the conference room. The hopeful prayers for me and the baby boy stirring within me, lifted up from those faithful stewards of your offerings to God’s work of Love through First Baptist Church. Unbeknownst to us, our last supper as a family of four. The sharp pains that began as darkness fell that night. My stubbornness in thinking that Baby Boy wasn’t actually preparing to arrive, because it wasn’t on my schedule! The panicked look on Josh’s face when he realized that my contractions were quickening and worsening, and of all the nights, it was the only one in that last month of pregnancy without a person on call in case I were to go into labor. That call I placed to my dear colleague, friend, and minister to my family, Amy Mac, who dropped everything to rush to our house at 11:00pm to stay with our other two. The last-minute scramble in between contractions to pack the final items into our hospital bags, load the dishwasher, and dash off instructions for the morning. The breakneck speed that my precious husband drove us to the hospital, clearly terrified that he’d have to deliver a baby on the side of Silas Creek Parkway!
And oh, the complete blur of those 45 minutes between our arrival to the hospital and our baby’s arrival into the world. The blinding pain, the rushing of nurses and doctors, the realization that this baby was coming and there would be no time for an epidural, the reassuring squeeze of my hand from my partner in life and love! There’s a reason, I think, that the final phase of labor is called ‘transition.’ It is the space between what was and what will be, where an end meets a beginning, where labor gives way to life.
And with one push before the doctor could even arrive, Miracle came into our world and Surprise was placed in my arms. This gift we never imagined or planned for changed us in an instant and has in every day that has followed. And in a nod to our Lord who came to utterly upend and transform every corner of God’s created world, this baby boy has saved me from myself, time and time again. After certainty, surprise; after suffering, the rising.
Happy birthday, beloved Silas!
Together in the work of Love,
Pastor Emily