My adult son, Colton, has been home this past week and when he’s here there are always bound to be interesting conversations. The unexpected always seems to pop out of his mouth and give me food for thought.  This visit was no different.

On our way to dinner one evening, we found ourselves talking about original sin, the pain of childbirth, and the connection between the two (based on Genesis 3:16).  I really struggled with that conversation, because my personal theology is not, these days, very focused on “original sin.”  And I can very honestly say that I never found any of the challenges of pregnancy and childbirth – not the morning sickness (that was with me, on and off, all day for three months), not the discomfort of scrunched internal organs, not the intrusive fetal hiccups (that always seemed to start in perfect synchronization with my desire to nap) or even breathing through the actual waves of pain that accompanied the labor contractions — to be in any way a punishment.  For me, it was all simply part of an inconceivably (no pun intended) miraculous process – full of love and grace.

Then, as is often the case, I opened up my daily devotional email the next morning to find thoughts that meshed well with the previous evening’s discussion.  The message for the day contained a quote from Philip Newell writing about Pelagius and saying that he “stressed not only the essential goodness of creation–and our capacity to glimpse what he called ‘the shafts of divine light’ that penetrate the thin veil dividing heaven and earth–but, very specifically, the essential goodness of humanity. Pelagius maintained that the image of God can be seen in every newborn child and that, although obscured by sin, it exists at the heart of every person, waiting to be released through the grace of God.”

Exactly!

As I tried (and continue to try) to sort out the conflicts of this one in my mind, it all came down to perspective and focus.  I am and have generally been more of a “glass half full” kind of optimist – looking for whatever glimmer of positive I can find in a situation.  The divine shafts of light were constantly shining through all the discomforts and inconveniences of carrying a developing new life within my own body.  It was less about pain and punishment and much more about the essence of God and Life and Grace and Goodness triumphing over the negative.  Admittedly, those “shafts of light” are probably more brilliant in retrospect than they were during the actual experience – but they were quite apparent to me nonetheless.

And doesn’t that seem like the right paradigm for all of life and living – focusing less on the punishments and imperfections of our existence and finding perspectives that bring more brilliance to the divine shafts of Light that are constantly beaming through our obscured views?  For me the answer is undoubtedly a resounding “yes!”

Thanks be to God – for Life, for Grace, and even for the so-called punishment of childbirth!