The empty womb

Month after month, year after year… and then years… prayers and tears. An empty womb, empty arms, and seemingly empty prayers. But the LORD sees and the LORD hears the prayers. According to His plan –His mercy and His will, the womb remains and the arms remain: empty. Month after month watching and waiting for the sign. A couple of weeks late and there’s the standing at the bathroom counter watching and waiting for the little pink lines. None. And another month passes and the months fade into years… waiting, waiting, waiting. For some, it’s standing by the phone… waiting for a call –either from a doctor or an adoption agency. The call comes… I’m sorry, not this time.

This is a scene that replays all over the world. Sisters aching for a baby to carry –a child to nurture –another life to love. This happens to young and old… women who’ve never conceived, women who’ve carried and lost precious little lives they never saw but intimately knew, women who have physical conditions that seem to prevent conception, women with pcos, women who’ve given up hope. It might surprise women who’ve never been able to conceive that women who’ve birthed many often deeply grieve the passing of the childbearing years –as if there would always be one more and that one more would forever be grievously missed. For all of these women, the empty womb cries out. A grief seemingly too hard to bear. The Word says that there are three things that are never satisfied –women with empty wombs know this full well.

There are three things that are never satisfied,
yea, four things say not, It is enough:
The grave; and the barren womb;
the earth that is not filled with water;
and the fire that saith not, It is enough.
Proverbs 30.15-16

We have a page of requests from women and some husbands, too –requests for prayer for conception and birth. The cries of their heart are repeated over and over. May the LORD hear the prayers and may His Word bring peace and encouragement.