He always delivers.

Someone very close to me just miscarried. I'm overwhelmed for her. I've lost nieces or nephews, I've lost cousins, so I know what her family is going through, but I can't imagine what she's actually feeling. I'm no where near the position to have a child and I know how bad my arms ache for one at times. I can't imagine having been pregnant and then never being able to hold that baby.

A long time ago when my parents and I were going to Antioch First Baptist, this woman sang this song about Jesus's rocking chair. It was a horribly twangy song that musically grated on my nerves, but it was touching. It talked about mothers that lose their children, whether before or after their birth, and how they're not able to hold or rock them, but that Jesus holds them in His arms and rocks them. It's always stuck with me and comforted me when my sister-in-laws or aunt miscarried. These babies are held, whole and beautiful in Heaven, and when we get there we'll know them.

Something else that I always think about are the verses in the Bible where God is comparing the earth to a woman in labor, and He says (this is a paraphrase because I can't remember the exact words,) "Just as a woman experiencing labor pains always delivers, I will deliver you." I find it incredibly sad that every woman I've spoken with that has had a miscarriage has experienced some aspect of birth. My friend felt her water break. My sister-in-law had to "pass" both babies that she miscarried. My aunt had to give birth to two dead babies, one at 4 months, another at 7 months. Although it's heartbreaking because water breaking and giving birth usually leads to something joyful, it's a reminder to me that God is faithful to deliver us. A woman experiencing labor pains will never not deliver. He will always deliver us, even in ways that we will never understand. Lord knows I will never understand the reasoning for a woman losing her baby, but I know that He comforts us and blesses us even in the saddest of situations, and I know that He is faithful to deliver us from sin and from evil.