40 Days!

As a new midwife something different struck me about lent this year and it was the title of this blog that started me thinking. We know our 40 days of lent before the joy of Easter mimic Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness before he commenced his active ministry, which echoed the Israelites 40 years in the desert before they reached the promised land. It seems 40 is a good preparation number. And where else do we see it?

I guess that most people count pregnancy in the traditional 9 months, but for anyone that's had a baby, and those of us in healthcare, a pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. 40 weeks of silent, unseen growth before the miracle of birth. 40 weeks of preparation before the joy of new life.

A whole lot of the meaning of Easter for me is that it is the ultimate display of Jesus' humanity that he died on the cross for us. Not just that God came to save us, but that He became man to save me. That he lived. That he died.

"Living he loved me

Dying he saved me

Buried he carried my sins far away"

And that life didn't just spring forth in time for his ministry, it began in the same way that all of ours did. In the silence of his mothers womb.

The women I am privileged to care for every day are desperate to get to their due date, they are longing to meet their babies. They prepare meticulously for this new life. And when the time comes, even in the midst of the most difficult labours, even though the parents are painfully aware of the implications of this little person, of the sacrifices they will have to make, they rejoice at the blessing they have received. Birth is the fulfilment of 40 weeks waiting and preparation, just as Easter should be after our 40 days preparation during lent. But when new life arrives we must not expect to settle back into the routine we were comfortable with before lent began. The arrival of a baby means life will never be the same for her parents, and yet are we ready to be changed by the even greater gift of new life in Christ.

As our preparation time draws to a close and we enter the triduum, perhaps we can challenge ourselves to think about how we can allow ourselves and our lives to be truly changed by what we are to receive this Easter. We are given new life in Christ by his resurrection, may our Lenten preparations not just be for the celebration of Easter, but may they help us to be made new. May our 40 days of sacrifice and spiritual preparation make us ready to live the promise of Easter in the rest of our lives. As our 'due date' approaches may the meaning of what we are to go through, the passion and death of our Lord, lead us to be really changed by His resurrection, and may we be transformed by His gift of new life.

Rosey Kennedy

24

Preston

Midwife