Featured Image: Detail from “The Precious Life”, Charcoal on Toned Paper, 9″ x 9″, by Mark Hillis
The Miracle of New Life
A Newborn Infant – always a symbol of new life, of hope and innocence. The culmination of nine months of life in the darkness of the womb, now expressed fully as the new life moves out into the world, into the light, into the place of danger and excitement. Every waking hour will now be time of sensory bombardment and rapid-fire learning never again to be equaled in its lifetime.
The Divine Pattern of Creation
Think for a few moments of the nine months of gestation. Ponder the process of life, created at conception – as a divine decree from Genesis is replayed time after time through the eons: the decree that each thing created by God was commanded to reproduce after its own kind. Cows beget cows. Trees beget trees. Dragonflies beget dragonflies, and man begets man. This very command explains a truth which is unpalatable to so many today…that each person is born with a sin-nature. Well, how can it be otherwise? Adam and Eve, once perfect before the Lord, would have reproduced, bringing forth perfect offspring. But a creation can only create after its own kind. When they sinned, it is evident that their nature literally changed and their minds were clouded by self-will. The divine decree made it impossible then for them to produce perfect offspring. They could only produce offspring which was fallen, as they were fallen.
In spite of this truth, the precious life in the womb is emblematic of hope, of innocence…for even though there is the ever-present sin nature, the child has not yet willfully sinned against God or man. Inevitably, self will take over and sin will come, but God has provided a remedy for us through the cross of Jesus.
In ministry we find ourselves occasionally comforting those who have lost an unborn child. For whatever reason, this new life does not make it to full term. The grief for the parents is real and sometimes the scenario is repeated multiple times.
The Principle of Birth in Creative Work
I want to tie this into a principle that is helpful in not only creative endeavors but also in spiritual matters. I call it the principle of birth. First, in the realm of art. When you begin to formulate an idea for a work of art, many times it can be compared to the process of conception, gestation and birth. There is a concept that is being formed within you. Many times young artists will give expression to that partially formed idea…they will speak it out to others around them. But the problem is, just as a newly conceived infant life cannot survive the harsh reality of existence outside of the womb, neither can the partially formed idea that you are conceiving. Unless you are super-confident, when you speak it forth and you get questions and criticisms in return, even by well-meaning individuals, the process will be still-born…it was not time to bring it forth. And you will cringe under the criticism and your idea will die. Your creative process needs to go through the stages of conception, then gestation, then when it is fully formed it can come to birth.4
Spiritual Gestation: Nurturing God’s Call
In a similar fashion, when you believe that God is giving you a big idea – perhaps it’s a calling to some ministry, or a sense that God is asking something of you – there is wisdom in keeping that thing inside until the time is right. We are so quick to speak, to blab, to want to sound spiritual, to bring things forth – and Satan will always have criticisms ready and words that slice your “baby” to pieces before you can even bring it to life. Don’t misunderstand me – the Bible says there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors and we need that in our life. But there are things that come to us that we need to let gestate.
Walking in Divine Timing
You can’t even bring the thing forward for the wisdom and input of Godly counselors until you know what you truly believe God is saying. Resist the urge to talk about it. If it’s from God, He will confirm it. It will move inside of you! It will get bigger and easier to identify as God forms it in you. Just think about how those images on the ultrasound progress over a period of months! Features become more and more recognizable…this new life becomes more and more beautiful. The thing God is forming in you begins with a mere conception, an idea. It may be from God, but I promise you that if you don’t even understand how to describe it and know that God is its father, it will be shot down by other people if you try to bring it forth too soon; it cannot yet survive in the cold environment of the opinions of others.
So let it be. Let conception give way to gestation. In His timing, you will know to bring it to birth…and you will know that the timing was right because when you bring it forth it lives. It thrives. It looks like what was growing inside of you.
May you grow in patience as you wait!
Blessings,
Mark