the end of waiting...

Stephen already blogged this great scripture passage that our family has been claiming while we wait with expectation for our beginning in the land down under. But today we received great news and rejoice that the waiting is almost over... in the meantime I desire to finish this waiting in fullness. I remember going on a two hour hike fully pregnant... that night my labor started... 'always pain before the child is born' but then - the child. Zion (name means the dwelling place of God) was born on Pentecost Sunday (the day the church celebrates the Holy Spirit given), and he has brought more fullness to my life than I could have imagined. He's already been a key player in a Corps Plant in canada's poorest postal code... imagine what he can do now that he can talk! :-)

Here's to new beginnings and strong finishes.
Romans 8: 22-25All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.