Birthing the “Baby”

She had taken thirty some hours to come into the world and then at last, she came screaming into the doctors waiting hands. She was bathed and swathed and brought to me and I looked at that baby in my arms and one of the first things I thought was “I wonder who you will grow up to be?” I think most mothers experience some of this same kind of feeling. I was enjoying the present (I was still numb!) but I already had an eye to the future. After all no one has a baby so they can keep it a baby. They have a baby so it might become an adult …and in some ways move from baby to child to…well…friend!
And if all of our hopes and dreams are realized we mothers pray that our children’s lives will amount to something that really makes a difference for the world! Birth is hard but it is only the beginning and with it comes an eye to the future.

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August 2004
Our contract with Navpress was signed and now the work began. We sent all of the VHS masters to them for reproduction along with the manuscripts for the eleven workbooks. I received six possible designs for the workbook covers but after looking at them I found I liked a portion of four of them. I talked to the design man and told him what I liked and about an hour later he sent me a compilation of those four designs and it was beautiful! We were all thrilled with the cover design and so one more detail and decision was made.

Navpress designed a marketing packet, along with the packaging for the product. A date was asset to send out 50,000 marketing packets to churches and individuals across America. The baby was ready to come into the world!

But while we waited for the birthing we found we were having trouble with the delivery. We were out of money and we owed $16,000.

We can understand how those Israelites complained in the wilderness even after God had done so many wonderful things for them. They simply forgot. A couple of days pass and I am convinced the human mind can forget even extravagant answers to prayer. And so we all began to get nervous as we cried out to God.

While we were in this time of grave concern (I could use the term panicked anxiety but I do not want to sound so unspiritual), I had lunch with my friend Darlene. After lunch she had to go to a luggage store to buy a new rolling suitcase and asked me to come with her. She made her purchase and as we were leaving she stopped, went back to the cashier and returned rolling a second suitcase, the most wonderful deluxe suitcase I had ever seen. “You need this”, she said, and handed it to me. I protested but she stood firm. She wanted to buy it for me because she KNEW I needed it. The truth is I DID but it was not in the budget. “For you, she said, “From God”. How she was aware of this need I do not know but it was a fabulous gift and such a generous act but more than that it was assurance that God knew what we needed and could provide.

The next day, once again the mailbox was empty…no checks from donors, nothing. I wrote “We are standing on shifting sand when we want to stand on the Rock!” Two days later we received a check form $6000. Later that week we received $1800 from a foundation and then Navpress called and said they were freeing up $8000 and with that we had all we needed. Soon after the baby was birthed, the marketing packets were sent on their way and the completed product arrived at the warehouse! The baby was here and now we waited to see what it would “grow up to be”.

Isaiah 66:9

Shall I bring to the time of birth and not cause delivery? Says the Lord