Making Room

Over the last six weeks, I have seen my best friend only from inside the walls of her room at UNC hospital.  After a difficult start to her pregnancy, we had hoped she was turning a corner.  Yet at 24 weeks, her baby girl named Lucy began acting up.  Lucy has been up to lots of shenanigans for the last six weeks that have kept my dear friend on bed rest.  I am not sure I ever understand how fully bed rest changes life.  It doesn’t mean just slowing down, it means stop.  Stop moving, stop making yourself a priority—simply rest so that your child will grow.  And my dear friend has done this with grace. 

I have always seen pregnancy as a beautiful journey of making room.  Expectant parents make room for their new child in their home often painting and preparing a nursery.  The woman’s body makes room as it expands to accommodate the child inside.  Despite its contrary appearance, bed rest is a room making practice as well. You aren’t doing anything, how can you make room? 

I have seen my dear friend make room in her schedule which was previously packed with long days and evening meetings to simply lay around.  My dear friend has made room on her priority list.  It is no longer dominated by her career-related vocational call but her new vocational call to be a parent.  Laying in bed, my dear friend has become so aware of her daughter’s movement.  She has made room in her own feelings to feel kicks of discomfort from the inside, to feel anxious heartbeats that are ready to meet the world now. 

Perhaps most significantly, I have seen my dear friend expand her capacity to choose another above herself.  We are a selfish people.  It is human nature.  We want comfort, ease and peacefulness.  This is often achieved at the cost of sacrificing someone else so that we can experience these fully.  Yet, on this journey of bed rest, I have seen my dear friend refuse to allow her selfishness win.  She has allowed medicine into her veins that will strengthen Lucy’s growing brain while it feels like molten lava moving through her body.  She has chosen to truly lay in bed and allow others to care for her so that she might care for Lucy.  I have seen what it looks like to sacrifice in action. 

And I am inspired.  I am inspired to make room in my own ways.  Even though I am not an expectant parent, we all are part of God’s new birth in creation each day.  Each day, God is bringing about new possibility, birthing new life.  So how are we making room?  How are we allowing God’s new life to be nourished and flourish in our lives?  Are we making room in our home, our schedules, our priority lists for God’s possibility to be birthed?  Are we willing to sacrifice our own notions of success, comfort and ease for the birth of something greater than ourselves?

I know full well that bed rest isn’t all roses, in fact, it is an ongoing collection of difficult moments. Yet, in this room-making practice, my dear friend is expanding in heart, mind (and her belly).  And because of the great love of her parents and their willingness to make Lucy a priority, soon and very soon, our community will welcome a beautiful baby girl into our lives. 

May our hearts continually make room for God’s new life.

danielle kathryn