At this time ten years ago Paul and I were awaking to the fleeting hours of our life Before Christopher. We didn’t take time to reflect as we were more focused on what was causing the passing of an age: the work of birthing the child who would supplant life as we knew it.
Let me tell you it was A LOT of work.
At the end of the day I was puffy, bruised and still in so much pain, dazed but happy. Paul was beaming, his face radiated pride and joy. Christopher was peaceful and perfect.
We didn’t know that an age had passed. Of course we knew that Parenthood had begun and that Life Before Children had ended but we had been ushered through a separate gate that no one could see and had begun to walk a path we didn’t know we were walking.
For Paul and me God has twice offered life through innocent babes. The first was Christ and the salvation brought by his death and resurrection. We consciously entered that era separately.
There is a picture of the second epoch. We are huddled on my hospital bed. Paul’s smile lights the picture, mine is softer, sleepy and cradled between us, his face slightly obscured by the swaddling blanket, is our first born child, a son and the beginning of our sanctification.
Very, very well said. I love you.