Before my first child was born, it seemed like I had been waiting forever. I remember lamenting to a friend during that long hot summer, how I feared I would be pregnant for the rest of my life, that the baby would never come at all and that I’d just keep getting bigger and bigger until I finally needed a maternity coffin at age 90. While I had read all the books, I still had no idea what to expect. Every twinge made me think it was time. Every false contraction. Some hurt—it felt like the real thing to me.
My doctor wasn’t excited about the delay, just rubbed his chin and said, “When the apple is ripe it will fall.” His advice was for me to go home and get ready for the baby.
When true labor finally started, it wasn’t hard to recognize. I just hadn’t known what to expect. Reading about labor was very different from experiencing it. Suddenly I understood that the early twinges were just that—early twinges and not the real thing.
Recently we’ve been hearing a lot of talk about the end of the world. Certainly the time is ripe. We’ve been waiting a long time. The signs and prophetic milestones all point to the second coming of Jesus. Books and pundits surround us with the subject. But just as first-time mothers have no idea what to expect with labor and delivery, so we all wait for the end times without understanding. We’ve never walked this way before. It’s coming, but maybe not right now. Maybe it’s just the first twinges of the end times.
The Bible says that the whole earth is like a woman groaning in labor, waiting for the coming of Christ. (Romans 8:22) Perhaps we’d do well to heed the advice of my good doctor so many years ago. Instead of worrying about it, go home and get ready for the baby.
