“For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.  But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out. I gasp and pant.” Isa 42:14

I love how God speaks to us through feminine images.  Only things that a mother could ever fully understand.  God labors for the ones He loves! He is bursting with hope of new life.  God takes on the image of a mother hen (Lk 13:34 & Mt 23:37), mother bear (Hosea 13:8) and a nursing mother. (Is 49:15)

This all means that God can identify with all the grit and gore of birthing.  And He understands that labor is a very real experience of deep pain and deep joy woven so deeply together it’s hard to tell one from the other. It’s a time of unknown where you push beyond what you think you are capable of because out of love is birthed a miracle.  I have learned that labor is a reflection of who God is. He created women to birth light and life I to the world.  And as a women a get to see a glimpse of how God labors for us, for those whom He loves.

Elijah Obadiah came into this world after 12 hours of hard back labor.  He is loved so dearly. His sister can’t get enough of him and either can we.  🙂 

Elijah means my God is YAHWEH.  Obadiah means one who serves God.