Waiting on God: What Pregnancy Teaches Us About Hope

Editor’s note – Waiting rarely feels productive, especially when it stretches into years instead of days. The author uses Paul’s pregnancy metaphor from Romans 8 to reframe an unanswered prayer as growth rather than stagnation. Her own wait – for her husband’s healing after a stroke – gives the metaphor its weight. We’re running it for anyone whose wait has outlasted their patience.

The Ache of Waiting

It’s fairly safe to say, most of us are waiting for something. We are waiting for the next event in our lives, perhaps a graduation or a wedding. Maybe we are waiting for a promotion, a vacation, or a new home or car. Some are waiting for healing. Some are simply waiting in line to buy something. Some are waiting for the results of a medical test. We know what it feels like to wait.

Paul’s Pregnant Metaphor

It’s interesting that Paul used a metaphor of a pregnant woman to paint a picture of what waiting is like. We can’t rush the process. We have to wait patiently for the pregnancy to run its course.

Why would a man, who doesn’t know what it’s like to be pregnant, use such a metaphor? Paul wasn’t even married. What did he know about being pregnant? Yet, this is the way he described waiting.

Editor’s note – Paul wrote as an outside observer to pregnancy, not from firsthand experience. That distance doesn’t weaken his point; it often takes someone else’s eyes to see our own waiting clearly.

A Creation in Labor

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy (Romans 8:22-25).

What We Don’t See in Someone Else’s Wait

So often we relate to what we see without knowing what someone is going through. We see challenges, joys, or sorrows, and rely on our own experiences of these situations to understand what someone is going through, but we can never truly know. We don’t know the circumstances that may exacerbate the situation.

The Discomfort Behind the Metaphor

Paul could see a woman’s pregnant belly enlarge. He knew it took roughly 40 weeks since conception until the baby would be delivered. He could probably see the expectant mother’s feet swell, and perhaps he knew that late in the pregnancy the woman would visit the toilet frequently because her baby pressed on her bladder. He could describe what he saw, but he couldn’t experience the discomfort, the difficulty in sleeping, walking, bending or squatting, the backache, and myriad other little things such as indigestion, food cravings, and other idiosyncrasies. Together with all these changes, we avoid the bathroom scale as we don’t want to know how much weight we are gaining. All the while, we patiently wait for the day of delivery. This is a painful experience, especially if we are giving birth naturally. After the baby is born, we forget about the pain very quickly, but we have to bear it to bring a new life into the world.

Editor’s note – The specifics here matter: swollen feet, sleeplessness, indigestion. Waiting is rarely abstract – it wears on the body and the nerves in ordinary ways, long before anything visible changes.

When Suddenly Feels Slow

What does this tell us about waiting for something in our lives? It may get much worse before it gets better. If we stick to the metaphor of a pregnancy, we should expect discomfort, pain, and perhaps prolonged waiting before our suddenly arrives. God loves to do suddenly in our lives, but before the “suddenly” we are stretched in our waiting.

Waiting for My Husband’s Healing

My husband suffered a debilitating stroke three and a half years ago. We are waiting for healing to manifest in his body. Some days are more difficult than others, and sometimes the waiting seems unbearably long.

Editor’s note – Three and a half years is a long time to hold on to hope. That kind of endurance isn’t willpower – it’s a relationship with God that deepens while the answer waits.

Rainless Clouds

You know, it’s difficult for a farmer suffering through a severe drought to watch wisps of rainless clouds floating through the sky. If we could only gather the clouds and force them to rain. But we can’t. Waiting for healing feels like this sometimes. Yet, like an expectant mother, we do not diminish in our waiting. We grow in our trust and relationship with God. We hold to hope and look forward to the day with great expectations.

What are you waiting for? How many times have you seen rainless clouds appear over the horizon? Has the waiting caused you to grow?

A Word from the Editor
Paul’s metaphor holds because it refuses to treat waiting as empty time. Something grows in it – trust, hope, nearness to God – even before anything visible changes. Whatever you’re waiting for, the waiting is not wasted. Romans 8 already told us so.

Editor Comment: Her honest picture of waiting for her husband's healing gives Paul's pregnancy metaphor real, lived weight for anyone still hoping for an answer.

This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.