Pregnant with expectation

Still pregnant. Three trips to L&D--I think they should give me a punch card or something. They haven't been "recreational", either--we've gone after 4-6 hrs of contractions a minute or two long and 3-4 minutes apart, well within the parameters of "real" labor. After trip #2, I said I wasn't going in until my water broke or I was in transition, but we ended up there last night--the contractions were wrapping around my back and shooting down my legs, to the point of feeling like I was going to collapse. (They're still happening, but now I know they're not doing anything towards resulting in a baby)...

I know I'm not going to be pregnant forever--it's not physiologically possible. But it is very frustrating and tiring--there is nothing left on our to do list that I can accomplish in the 1 minute between one contraction ending and the next arriving.

So I think today I'm going to pretend I'm not pregnant anymore. Just really fat.

Sometimes I think the church (and especially some denominations) are like me. They've forgotten that we're pregnant--Jesus IS coming back someday. We just don't know what the gestation period on a savior is. Even Jesus doesn't know: "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:36).

And other congregations are also like me--wondering if every "twinge" is a labor pain, and wondering if today is the day. Matthew 24 gives a pretty clear description of what "labor" for Jesus returning looks like. But he also makes it clear that EVERYONE will know when he's really back.

Thanks, Lord, that you are coming back someday, someday soon. Help us not grow weary of watching for you, nor read too much into events around us. Give us your perspective.