Reflections
The Other Side of Travail
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow…but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. (John 16:21)
When we are suffering, our attention is upon the suffering. But Jesus is reminding us that something is being birthed that will, in that day of birth, change our perspective. He is talking about a new revelation of Himself through suffering. “You cannot see the Truth now. But you will. Hold fast by faith until that day.” In one sense of the word, the fullness of what suffering will birth will never be evident here. But in the eternal ages it will be released into the fullness that God intended.