I was laying in bed this morning and some thought led to the next and I found myself thinking of pregnancy and the “born again” experience. They don’t seem to go together at first, until you start thinking about the little life in complete darkness, but he doesn’t know he is in darkness because he has never experienced life outside of that darkness. He doesn’t know what light is. He is in his own little world. There is another life, the mother, that sustains him and keeps him alive, but he doesn’t really have much knowledge or understanding of her. As he develops though, he begins to hear a voice that is consistently there. Sometimes he feels some poking and prodding, and it always goes along with that voice. One day, when the time is right, he doesn’t just feel a little poking and prodding, but much more and he knows he can’t remain in that dark comfortable place any longer. He doesn’t really know what is happening, but he does know that he still hears that one voice that he has been hearing for so long now. He can fight and resist and stay in darkness a little longer, or he can just surrender to the process of being born. Once out of that womb, things are not always so comfortable, but wow, the light, the understanding! There is so much to see! The face, the smile of the one who’s voice he has been hearing. So much to feel, the warm and comforting embrace of the one who was sustaining him and he didn’t even know it. Now he knows to look to that one for comfort, nourishment, guidance, love, everything. When we are given spiritual life, many of these things are true for us. For one, we don’t understand the spiritual darkness we are in until we come out of it and are in the light. We may hear the voice of the one who gives us life and feel his prodding now and then, but it is not until He fills us with the life of His Spirit that we are truly in relationship with Him. We begin to see Him, learn about Him, experience Him and His love and care for us in a real way that just like a child and his mother, we rely on Him for everything, love Him more than anything, and desire to be with Him and please Him more than anyone else. -Angela
Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." -John 10:27-28
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." -Colossians 1:13
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again." -John 3:3,7
