Thursday, September 13, 2012

Born Again...

According to all the baby books and sites, our baby's hearing has gotten stronger and stronger these last few weeks. She can now hear us having conversations or listening to music. For a while now, we've been working on this assumption and incorporating bedtime stories into our nightly routine. We've worked our way through The Jesus Storybook Bible and are now on to some serious Dr. Seuss. It's Patrick's chance to connect with the baby, and let's be honest, I still love a good read-aloud before going to sleep.

I believe our baby girl can hear Patrick's voice because she stirs whenever he gets close enough, even if she's  been still for a while. However, one night, I started thinking about if she could make out the individual words.

I doubt it. Surrounded by the sounds of my stomach, the warm sea she's floating in, and the muffled walls of her world, she can't make out Patrick saying, "Your daddy loves you. Your mama loves you. But Jesus loves  you most of all." He declares her precious, but she won't be able to hear it clearly until she is born. That night, I finally understood Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus.

I had never really gotten the whole "born again" thing either, and always felt like Jesus had been a little tough on the guy. Besides, the words "born again" have gotten a pretty bad rap over the years as they can conjure up Bible thumping or naiive people running around shouting, "Hallelujah!" Why would Jesus choose this image?

Here's the whole conversation (I like The Message's version):

"There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we all know you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”
Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.”
“How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?”
5-6 Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
7-8 “So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.” (Emphasis mine)

We can speak words of love over our child every day. They can move her, stir something in her she doesn't understand. However, until she is born, she can never fully understand the love we are inviting her into. 

What if God is caressing the arched womb of this world, whispering, shouting, and crooning his love over us? We're promised, "He will take great delight in you;  in his love he will no longer rebuke you,  but will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17). He is declaring us precious, but unless we believe Jesus when he says he's the only way to God, unless we accept his offer of love and forgiveness, we will never accurately hear his voice. 

Our baby might not understand that there is only one way out. Only one way to fully enter into life. She might be hesitant to leave the safety of her known world. But, Oh, when she does, she will be fully embraced by our words, our arms, and our community. God's children are the same way. If you have never fully accepted this whole Jesus thing, I get it. It's a scary passage into the unknown. But, Oh, when you do, you are then fully embraced by God's words, his arms, his community. You will be able to hear the words of love he has spoken over you for so long. 

If you know Jesus, if you are moving forward in relationship with him, birth doesn't stop our stories. We're called to "grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." (Ephesians 4:15). 

As we grow, the words of this song have always been beautiful to me: 

Those without status,
those who are nothing,
You have made royal,
gifted with rights,
chosen as partners,
midwives of justice,
birthing new systems,
lighting new lights.
                 -from "Fresh as the Morning" by Shirley Erena Murray. © 1996 Hope Publishing Co. 

Our function as that body is not to be judges, not to be exclusive caretakers of our own, but to be midwives. Those who help others to be born and thereby, to hear. May we take this beautiful calling seriously, until the day when every tribe and tongue can hear the song of the Lamb who has been singing all along. 

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