Right now, I have a lot of sympathy for Mary the mother of Jesus. I’m almost 8 weeks pregnant, and I feel crummy. In fact, I feel bad almost all day, every day. My first four pregnancies were easy; this one isn’t. And so, as I struggle with bloating and nausea, lack of sleep, dizziness, and fatigue, I sympathize with Mary.
She must have felt some of those same symptoms too. It’s possible that she had a nearly symptom-free pregnancy, but the odds are that she didn’t. At this stage of her pregnancy, she probably suffered from morning sickness, or fatigue, or something. Maybe even all of the above. Maybe she, too, felt like weeping when she was trying to replace the toilet paper roll and dropped it on the floor. Or maybe she simply wept at the shame she endured from bearing the scorn of her community, though she knew she’d done nothing wrong.
For nine months, she suffered—and then, of course, there was that donkey ride to Jerusalem that couldn’t have been comfortable under the best of circumstances and may even have caused her to go into labor. Somehow, riding in a car to the hospital to give birth seems a lot easier than riding on a donkey to a stable.
I think about what Mary endured during her pregnancy, and I identify with her. She seems more real to me. Yes, she was a woman of God chosen by God for the special purpose of bearing the Messiah—unlike me. Yet she was also a pregnant woman, so I know how she felt.
I wonder if one of the things that helped her make it through those long 9 months was knowing that she would bear a Son who would be Savior of His people. She was doing something incredible for the Lord Himself—something no one else could have done in quite the same way.
It comforts me to know that I, too, am serving the Lord through my pregnancy. So did you, through yours, or through everything you suffered on the road to adoption. No, we’re not called to bear the Messiah. But we’re called to suffer for Him just the same.
What I mean is this: Jesus said that whatever we do for “the least of these”, we do directly “for Him.” And who could be more “least of these” than a baby who’s barely the length of a blueberry? Than a baby who doesn’t even have fingers and toes yet, or even true arms and legs? Who could be more “least”?
So when you spend the morning, or even the whole day, throwing up…when you don’t have the energy to do even the things you want to do…when you feel bloated, or your head hurts, or your back hurts, or everything hurts, remember that you are serving your Lord. You are sacrificing your comfort to bring His precious creation into the world. Your suffering is more than something to be gotten through as quickly as possible (though we all wish for that). It’s service to Jesus.
When you went through those things in the past…when you suffered the pains of the adoption process…you were serving Jesus.
Mary served her son and Lord in a very real, tangible way. You and I are serving Him just as directly. That’s because Jesus granted dignity to our suffering by saying that when we serve “the least of these”, we serve Him. In other words, He takes our service personally.
So be encouraged, dear mom. Even your suffering is an act of service. Not only that, but it can be an act of worship, too, if you offer it to the Lord. Lying on the couch, too drained and exhausted to get up because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you’re doing nothing. Oh, how Satan would love to have us believe that it’s nothing. But Jesus tells us otherwise. We’re doing something.
We’re serving Him.
Matthew 25:40—“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”