I spent a couple of hours at the hospital today with my sister, Mary, her husband, Ryan, and an assorted collection of other family members.  The occasion?  We’d all gotten texts saying that today would be the day that the newest member of our family would arrive, and sure enough, just a bit after lunch, Elijah Charles Story came on the scene, all 8 pounds and 12 ounces of him.  I could write a lot about him, even though he’s only a few hours old, but let me just share one, small, very important secret about what makes a birth so special:

The more “ours” a baby is, the more special the birth becomes.

Think about it.  I’ve been in hospitals for any number of births, and some were a lot more special than others.  I can think of 3 births that were more special than any of the others, and that’s precisely the number of children I have.  You’re right.  It’s no coincidence.  Those three babies were mine and Wendy’s.  We were “all in” at their births, and because of that, those moments became immeasurably more special than the births of nieces, nephews, or the children of close friends.  At the same time, the births of my nieces and nephews – while not as special as the birth of my own children – are much more special than the births of babies who weren’t a part of my extended family.

Again, the more “ours” a baby is, the more special the birth becomes.

It’s not much different in the spiritual realm, either.  A lot of us are witnesses to births that we’ve had very little to do with, and as a result, we tend to miss the full beauty of the new thing God did.  We may get caught up in the moment that we see the new life, but since we had little to nothing to do with the conception and will have hardly any skin in the game with the continued growth, we’re quickly out the door, leaving the ongoing growth of the vision to those who dreamed it first.

It’s easy to celebrate a birth, and when the baby isn’t ours, it’s just as easy to walk away from it.  But when we have a stake in how that baby grows and lives, the birth draws us in even more, and we find ourselves captivated with the hope of the newborn’s future.

It’s a commitment like that which makes a birth even more special, and should drive us to ask: what is God preparing in us that will culminate in a special birth, and who will be “all in” with us when the special day arrives?