²¹ “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. ²² Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

Like the pains of labor leading up to childbirth, so the disciples should see the prospect of Jesus’ leaving them as leading to something greater, that can be likened to the miracle of childbirth. Think of it for a moment—procreation is the actual creation of a new human being! From a simple reflection on the complexity of the human body this is nothing short of completely and absolutely amazing. Billions of cells unite, each with incredibly complex DNA information stored in each nucleus. With one single breath of air, the newborn’s lungs separate out the oxygen and sends it coursing through the body, pushed along by the heart, through a vast system of arteries and capillaries, to every single cell in the body. One gulp of milk activates the digestive system and feeds nutrients to the entire body through the same blood system. The nervous system electrically controls the entire operation with multitudes of neurons connecting all movement with the command center, the brain.

Add to all this, in the newborn God has placed the propensity to learn, and thus the new human being has the capacity to grow, to learn and to make moral judgment. Each new human being contains within itself the image of God, the reflection of His glory. In all this, the birth of a child is amazing.

Science with all its PhD’s, education and research, in its quest of robotics and artificial intelligence after years of experimentation and engineering can’t even come close to emulating the miracle of what takes place at childbirth. Human birth takes place without any education, research or training. In fact two people without any education or even high IQs can make it happen! God must chuckle at man’s trivial attempts to build new towers of Babel!

Basic to Christian disciples, as Jesus tells His disciples in the Upper Room, is that living by faith without the physical, tangible presence of God is like embracing the labors of childbirth because of what it is leading up to. There is joy and happiness in the end, and therefore we can live with that joy and happiness now—in anticipation. Jesus said, “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.” No one, nothing can take this joy away from us. No suffering, no pain, no heartbreak – nothing.

Lord, when I doubt Your existence or grieve because of Your silence, I am reminded that You are coming back and I will then physically see You.