WE ARE EXPECTING ANOTHER BABY SCHULZE!

(due in September 2020)

We are so excited for this little one and their precious life that has already begun!!! Really, in many ways, this little person in the womb and their ~9 month journey is a picture of what our life and our ~90 year journey is like. Let me expound.

“WHAT WE WILL BE HAS NOT YET APPEARED”

That’s how the Bible says it in 1 John 3.

We don’t yet know who this child is, what they will be like, how their voice will sound, what their personality will be — but after this 9 month journey in the womb, we will then see him/her face-to-face. We don’t yet KNOW this child, but we DO know that he/she is ours, belongs to us, and will bear our image.

Our immediate lifespan is really like a “womb” experience. (I say “immediate lifespan” to refer to our years of life in this age before we are with Christ — really, you have an eternal lifespan). In the next age, when the Lord has come and we are in our resurrected bodies, then we will truly be “born again” and be seen as for who we truly are.

I’ve been pondering this and think there’s so much parallel between this ~9 month womb experience and our ~90 year life experience.

Yes, the baby is already alive RIGHT NOW, but there will come a time when he/she is literally born, comes out of the womb, and enters into the next stage of life. So also, we who believe in Jesus can have life in Christ NOW — but there is also coming a future day when we will literally be born again and bodily resurrected — entering into the next stage, yay, the next age.

“My life is hidden with Christ” (Colossians 3:3)

Right now, the significance of my life in Christ is mostly hidden, unrecognized, and undervalued — just like it was with Him during His first time on earth. Though He was the very Son of God, he was despised, rejected, and hidden in many ways at His first coming. But when He comes again, He is coming like a mighty Lion, a King with justice and power.  In that day, all the “foolish” (in the world’s eyes) and “child like” choices we made with Christ will be fully justified and will look like the wisest thing ever.

Our weak little lives will be raised in power and we’ll be given so much dignity and honor:

“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” (1 Corinthians 15:42-43)

We will also bear His image:

“And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” (I Corinthians 15:49)

Right now it’s just a shadow, dim reflection, and a mere glimpse of who we shall be and the glory we shall bear:

“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”(1 John 3:2)  “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4) “We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

There will be the dawn of a new day, and as the sun rises so we will rise and reign with Jesus as children of the light.

So, I’m eagerly waiting for that Day — when Christ comes and transforms my lowly frame into His glorious image. In that Day I’ll most truly and most fully be “born again.”

And, I can’t wait for my little baby to be born — so we can begin to enjoy him/her and discover their beautiful personality, features, and life.

Because right now in the womb, we don’t yet know fully who they are. What that child will be has not yet fully appeared.