A New Life

I have been thinking about new life lately because my son, Peter, and his wife, Sarah, became parents of a baby boy in June; he was born by C-section. I was struck by a picture of them minutes after the birth. Peter has baby Alex cradled in his arms, and has laid the baby and his own head on the operating table next to Sarah. Peter and Sarah are together enveloping Alex in smiling beams of love and happiness, as well as the warmth of Peter's arms.

But baby Alex seems oblivious to them, and his face looks anguished. It is as if he were saying, "This is terrible! I have just been through great trauma! I've been pushed on and pushed on, over and over. And then I was grabbed out of my warm, soft, snug world, into glaring light and cold air, with nothing around me! People poked me! What kind of horrible thing has happened to me?"

Alex seems to have no idea that two strong and loving people are encircling him with love and care. He has no idea that what he thought was his secure and comfortable world would have been his tomb had he remained in it a few weeks longer. All he knows is that the world has changed, seemingly for the worse. He liked his old life.

But how things had changed a month later! My son put a video of Alex on their website, showing him responding in happy smiles, and even a laugh, whenever my daughter-in-law whistled. In the video, Alex can't take his eyes off of his mother. He is obviously delighted to be with her. Even when she picks him up and moves him around, his eyes never leave her face. He loves her.

Alex has discovered that his new life is better, far better, than his old one. His new life makes him smile and laugh! There is a mommy, and a daddy, and even a sister, in his new life. Before going through the trauma of birth, he had no way to imagine these things, no knowledge that could give him a clue about them. But once he was on the other side of birth, there those wonderful people were. Now that he has them, he would never choose to give them up and go back.

Alex's experience reminds me of two other things, changes that many of us fear and yet that may lead us to wonders beyond our imaginings.

One of them is becoming a Christian and handing over our lives to Jesus. Many people do not want to relinquish control of their lives to anyone else. They don't want to make changes by stopping doing what is fun or pleasurable, perhaps having to change some enjoyable habits. Similarly, a relative of mine was an alcoholic for years and didn't want to quit because she thought it would be boring to be sober.

But once we truly give ourselves to Christ, we find treasures that we did not even know existed. There is a richness and a joy that is beyond the imagination of people who aren't Christians. The old habits that we thought we loved seem like nothing to us; it's no problem to give them up, because we don't care about them any more. My relative, who has been sober for years now, says that she loves it; it's not one bit boring, it's richly fulfilling. She had not been able to imagine that before she tried it. It is the same with being a Christian.

The other change that many of us fear is dying. Most people dread it. We are usually happy here, or at least it seems better than dying. We don't know what it will be like to die. Very few people would willingly go to their deaths. This life is usually at least comfortable and familiar. Death is frightening, and it may be traumatic.

But what is on the other side of that dying? If we are Christians, what we will find when we die is Jesus and all the joys of eternal life with Him. We don't know what that will be exactly, but we do know that it will be so great and beautiful that we can't even imagine it. We think that in this world we are secure and comfortable, like baby Alex thought he was in the womb. But when we pass through death to new life, we will be filled with joy, like baby Alex is now with his family surrounding him with love and care. It is not to be feared; when we are Christians, it is to be anticipated with gladness.

We are so blessed to have a God that we can trust, and to have a new life to look forward to with joy.