Ponder something with me a moment. What if the experience of childbirth, both in its pain and joy, is something God has allowed humanity to undergo in order to understand something of how he made the world?

To put it differently: What if a mother’s experience in gestation, labor, and delivery is more of a reference point for the creation of the universe than the more traditional metaphors, such as say an intelligent Clockmaker putting together a finely tuned object, as something totally separate from himself. I believe Scripture hints at this reality–that creation was birthed within and out of God (see Colossians 1:16-17). In this way, childbirth would be an earthly reflection of a heavenly truth. It would also be a pathway for us to fellowship with God and understand and know his heart more, in the same way two women can connect over a similar experience of labor.

We’ll come back to that little thought experiment in a moment. For now, I want to share about a type of birthing experience I’ve had in the creative sphere. While it was a much different level of pain management than delivering a human being (shout out to the ladies), there are many parallels of bringing something forth that you’ve conceived in your heart and allowed to gestate through wavering periods of doubt and faith, procrastination and inspiration. As some of you know, I’m referring to the release of the book The Snow Globe that I co-authored with Dylan DeMarsico and Mo Thomas. This little book was many years in the making and it seeks to impart a deeper revelation of God’s heart for a planet that he himself brought forth.

It’s funny…on the week I was getting ready to finalize our digital files to get the whole thing ready to “deliver” to our readers, water spilt all over my laptop, shutting it down completely. The next morning, as I was spending time with Jesus (and sulking a little bit), I felt him tell me, “Nick, your water broke!” God has quite the sense of humor! But it was exactly what I needed to hear. (And thankfully, the files were backed up in a cloud of Dropbox Glory.)

As I had this time with Jesus, I felt specifically led to Revelation 12 and the story where Satan, depicted as a great dragon, is ready to devour a child that a woman is giving birth to. Immediately, I was reminded of something a dear friend told me when I first became the pastor of The Journey Church (now The Almond Branch). He said he had an impression from the Lord that the enemy was standing in front of me like a dragon waiting to devour the “child” of what God was going to birth in the church. This friend, who has since went on to be with the Lord, told me that the dragon tries to devour our promises primarily through fear. 

Over the years, God has developed this truth in my heart. Heidi Baker, a powerful missionary in Mozambique, watered this seed when I heard her preaching, “If you don’t give up, you win!” This is something she’s shared in many of her messages, especially as she has toiled through some of the hardest spiritual soil in the world in seeing thousands of orphans rescued and brought into relationship with Jesus (but seeing that happen through intense tribulation and loss). This message she’s commissioned to bring is clear–the only way we won’t birth what God has placed in our hearts is if we yield to the lies of fear and completely give up and walk away from the promise. 

Now, back to my time with Jesus (after he told me my water broke) . . . I kept reading and in Revelation 12 the dragon goes on to spew out a flood of water in an effort to drown the woman he was previously trying to stop from giving birth. There was a lot more God spoke to me through this, so much so that it became the basis for a message I shared with our church that following Sunday. On that day I also publicly announced the release of The Snow Globe for the first time. Amazingly, the next day, there was unexpected flooding all over the East Coast. We even had flooding in our basement for the first time in over a decade.

To me, this all feels like such a signpost from heaven. The enemy is truly attempting to drown us out, which many times involves making us feel “overwhelmed” (like in a rising flood) so that we give up and don’t keep moving forward into all that God has for us. But the beautiful fact is that God has a way of turning a flood of water from the enemy into the breaking of spiritual amniotic fluid. In less graphic terms, God turns the enemy’s attacks into moments of great breakthrough!

Now! As I’m writing this totally stream-of-consciousness, I’m also recalling how one week before any of this happened, I was preparing for our Christmas Eve service and came across the Maverick City version of the song Mary Did You Know? In the song, the lead singer Chandler Moore starts prophesying to people who are carrying things from God–just like Mary. He even mentions a book as an example of something people are needing to birth! This blows me away considering how I heard this song before any of the birthing stuff unfolded the following week. In that song, Chandler declares that we are going to birth what God has placed in us, and that we should not give up!

So I share this with you, beloved friends, as a word of encouragement. To our fellow readers and writers, to our glorious muppet community of Jesus followers, God is birthing new things in your lives! More than ever, we have to reject the temptation to “grow weary and give up.”  Don’t yield to fear or be alarmed by any rising floods seeming to block your way. Painful as delivery may be, these floods are only the breaking loose of great promises and divine purposes. Many of us know this truth in our mind, but God wants to bring us into a full experiential awareness of it.

To return to where we started, let’s remember that the pain of birthing things is not something God watches from a distance, observing us as some faraway Judge. No, He is near to the ones He Himself birthed. And this is where we are tapping into the very experience of God Himself. In these difficult experiences, we’re getting to know more of his heart–which includes getting to know the victorious, persevering nature of His heart.

Jesus truly understands our pain. He knows the struggle of waiting. He knows the longing for a manifestation of a dream and the crucible of seemingly endless patience. Because of this, He cares so deeply for us, way more than we can imagine. And! even when we do temporarily try to throw in the towel and give up, He stands right there and picks it up off the floor (after we’ve had a good tantrum or two), and places it back in our hands, with mercy and kindness. In that place, he reminds of who we are. We are made in His image. We are not designed to give up. We are designed (more than designed!  we were birthed) by a good Father and we carry his ability to persevere. 

With that, I want to leave you with two things . . .

First is something we’ll be developing more in the weeks ahead: There’s a sense we have, as well as many others, that some big shakings (i.e. labor pains) are coming upon the world in 2024. God is shaking up the Snow Globe! But like what happens with a physical snow globe, the results are going to be BEAUTIFUL!  (Amen?)

Second: I include here the Maverick City version of Mary Did You Know? Find some time to enjoy the presence of Jesus and give this a good listen . . .