Basic HTML Version
HOW
SHOULD CHILDREN
BEBORN?
by
Jeff Calkins
What did God design childbirth to be like? A drugged nightmare, with a
woman strapped to a table? Or a joyful,
magnificent triumph typifying the very destiny of humankind?
D
IO YOU
ever no–
tice that
th e wo rd most
commonly used
when speaking of
childbirth is–
miracle?
lndeed
the
"miracle of birth"
is a phrase used so
often - more in
the past than now,
though - that
it
has become al most
a cliché.
No doubt there
are people, probably
quite numerous and
vocal these days,
who don ' t see any–
thing at all miracu–
lous about birth. For
them, it is a ll a secu–
lar matter of biology
and chemistry.
spe~ial
part of cre–
ation revealing the
awesome powers of
the Creator.
Special conscious–
ness of God avail–
able in the proccss
of birth is no acci–
dent. Physical birth
is a portrayal of spir–
itual salvation. The
destiny of man is to
be boro into the
very
Family
of God. It
was this principie to
which Christ al–
luded when He
made H is famous
statement to N icod–
emus, "Except a
man be boro again,
he cannot see the
kingdom of God"
(John 3:3).
These truths, sim–
ply stated, have a
profound influence
on the
preferred
method
of child–
birth. 1
f
God made
But more spiri–
tually
inclined
people tend to look
at birth differently.
They see in it the
~
childbirth to portray
~==~~~===~~~~======~~==~~~
a deeper, spiritual
handiwork of God. As King
David of ancient Israel wrote:
"For thou hast ... covered me in
my mother's womb.
T
will praise
thee; for 1 am fearfut"ly and won-
August .1981
derfully made ... " (Psalm
139: 13-14).
.
For David, a child in its moth–
er's womb was something "fear–
fully and wonderfully made"-a
message, then chil-
dren ought to be born in a way
as
close as possible
to the way God
designed it.
Furthermore, childbirth not
only reveals a spiritual truth, but
11