Sonja!

April 20 was the day of baby Sonja's birth. At 4 am that morning a week ago, we got a phone call and soon to be big sister Erika was brought over by her parents to be with us. She woke up at gramma and grandpa's house hours later not even remembering coming here. Before I'd even gone back to sleep the phone rang again with news Sonja had arrived. In a rush, in a hurry she arrived, so fast they barely made it to the hospital.

Waiting in those early morning hours, I was unable to sleep, eagerly anticipating the long-awaited arrival of our newest grandchild remembering my own labors. My thoughts hovered above the waters of chaos, this place of new life. In this thin place, where dreams merge into consciousness, I remember realizing profoundly the connectedness I had not only with this event, but also with all life. It is through the totality of all of our experiences and memories that we are able to recognize our common humanity. It is in this tender most human of all spaces that we become aware of how we all come from the same place, the same molecules only so ever slightly rearranged. I thought of the women all over the world who were giving birth this very morning. Thinking of the labor pains my thoughts settled on the current intense Spring I am experiencing here in Michigan. The words from the bible about all of creation groaning in labor for a new creation took on new relevancy.

This new creation, the kingdom Jesus spoke so often about in the gospels, is like the force of the sap pushing up from the roots of the big trees and little bulbs here, rising to feed the newly growing buds and flowers. It is like the force of the labor contractions pushing out that baby into new life. This force of life connects us and truly literally makes us one even as each one of us is a unique creation of this stuff of life. Each new life bursting forth is a miracle and changing the world forever. Why is it that this is so hard for us to see? Life is so amazing!