With Child
This advent season, I’ve been drawn to scripture to read again about the birth of Jesus. It never fails to amaze me that no matter how many times I read those verses, the Lord helps me see something new.
This time, two short words really caught my attention – in Matthew 1:8: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”
With child. You know, it’s such a simple phrase, and I must have read those verses a hundred times in my life so far. But this time I saw a beautiful, sovereignly spoken truth in those words.
When a woman is pregnant, she is with child. She is carrying a baby. A tiny human being. No matter how early in her pregnancy– it’s a child that is in there in her womb. Nothing less.
A client recently shared with us that she’s scared about being pregnant. She doesn’t know if she’ll complete the pregnancy or not, and she doesn’t know yet what her boyfriend thinks about the pregnancy, either. She’s very early – about 6 weeks along. We encouraged her to take her time and not rush into making a decision. She chose to hear the heartbeat and took the ultrasound pictures with her. We’re praying she’ll choose life and that her boyfriend will support her. We hope the ultrasound will help her see that she is with child, and perhaps even think of herself that way.
I know the phrase sounds archaic. No one seems to talk about being pregnant in those terms any more. But the Bible is wise on so many levels. There’s a clarity and weight to “with child”. So perhaps, friends, when someone we know becomes pregnant, or when we see a pregnant woman out in public, we can intentionally think to ourselves – “She is with child.”
We have all been created for Him.