BabyGate

Nathan here,
A while ago Niki let me do a guest appearance on her blog and I wrote about how I had won the biggest loser contest at work (and yes I’ve put it all back on thank you for asking). Now that all my school work is done though, I thought it would be fun to write a blog post for Niki. Especially since she needs to be reading Lohfink and not thinking about entertaining all of you with her incredible depth, humor and insights. Since it’s Christmas and babies are in the air I thought I would tell the world what I think about babygate as it shall hence forth be known. Babygate is that conspiracy of unknown forces that have not allowed us to naturally conceive a child in the last three or so years (unlike Niki I do not keep a count... at least not yet). I have to say that for the first... oh... three or so years I have been on the... what’s the word... not indifferent... but willing to let the baby stuff happen or not. I’ve been all for the sex part (If Niki can always be honest here so can I right?) and I have been supportive and willing to see it happen. But it hasn’t been a real priority for me. It’s not that I don’t want kids, it is just that I wasn’t ready. Let’s face it, becoming a parent means a drastic change in life. I know people with kids, and they just aren’t fun any more (Just Kidding Brad :D ). Well it’s more that parents have to be unselfish, they have to give and give and give, and in all honesty I wasn’t really ready to be unselfish (I’m working on it though). Well over the last few months... probably since getting to know our neighbors little girl K (see pictures) my heart has been rapidly changing. The other night I couldn’t sleep and I was like, “ok God time to get moving here!” My heart has been opened, and having a child is something that I too really want to happen, and soon. I’m starting to get impatient, and I’m really not sure how Niki has been dealing with the pain for so long.

As I mentioned before December is the baby month, the month when families are supposed to be together, and when all we talk about is Jesus as a baby. So with our family smaller than Niki and I think it should be, I had an interesting devotional thought. I am reading the MB seminaries Advent devotional (free here) and I was reading the entry for Dec 6, and this thought struck me. There is absolutely no reason for the Zechariah and Elizabeth story in the Bible.... well.... maybe it was to encourage Mary and open her eyes to see God was up to something, but she had just seen an angel so I would think that would have been heads up enough to know that God was doing something crazy. Seriously, why the story about a barren woman conceiving a child? As far as I can see it doesn’t make any difference to God’s greater plan whether or not John’s mother was barren or not. This part of the story is completely unnecessary to the greater story. I can just see Luke’s editor looking at it and saying, “Look Luke, this has gotta go, it’s just fluff, let’s just keep the story going.” Since the beginning of time God has used thousands of men and women who’s mothers bore them with no problem. So why the story of John? Why in a story about Jesus, does Luke toss in a fact about this woman and her supernatural conception? For me, my hope is that God takes pleasure in causing women to be surprised. My hope is that God likes to take pleasure in unnecessary pregnancies. I can see no reason that God chose Liz instead of any number of other women with a healthy uterus to bring Jesus’ herald into the world, but God chose to do a miracle. And so this Christmas season, I am hoping that God will do one in our lives, and that babygate will become a conspiracy of how God surprised us with a healthy beautiful herald of God’s goodness.