Baby Brothers

Baby Brothers

Whence comes this feeling in my belly?

Life there from the movements that I feel.

Can it be for me who once was empty?

There is no doubt, it moves, it’s real.

Larger and larger the swelling grows,

Ankles disappear.

No more vision of my curly toes

And hope for deliverance delays its show.

Until with startling shocks of pain

To couch until the birth I go.

And longed for pain’s refrain

Comes home, again, again, again.

Now, now the babies come.

The first head soon appears.

He is anxious not to be outdone

And clamors forth in tears.

As the first head begins to crown

And painfully emerges.

I am full of fears within and cries without,

My face a wretched sweaty frown

Until his curly head I spy and shout

Manchild born! and panging pain dies down.

But cramps again with pangs of birth

When suddenly there appears

A second crown of hairs

A second son, unlike the first.

His hair fair, the other’s black.

Nor curly but straight as furrowed rows.

The second having escaped his sack

Delivered with no pain at all.

These two, these miracles from God.

Baby toes and fingers tiny.

Appear obedient to pain’s purging rod

Now mother ‘s face is shiny.

They grow, these boys in fertile soil.

One tills the ground his food to grow.

One kills his game for food to show.

Two brothers, one mother, unlike each other.

Double the joy with each reflection

God’s character in boy’s complexion.

Life giver, from earth and air and water.

Life taker, from beast, provider, hunter.

Life given and taken from boys,

They learn to act like men.

Contentment revealed in playful toys

And also blows from envy’s sin.

Mother scolds and father trains

Boys contend and chaos reigns

And envy raises his ugly head.

These twins engaged as rivals dread.

Babies are blessings and boys bless better.

But not all babies are blessings after.

Boys are blessings until they sin

And not all boys bless into men.

Some follow envy, strife and sin.

And even murder when sin is rooted

Growing envy ever deeper then,

Men walk in envy evil booted.

Two stories of blessing and also cursing.

Two boys contending, even nursing.

One nourished to faith, hope and love

One feeding on fear and envy and pain.

One gives only a simple shove

The other to death blows resorts again.

These brothers we know and name,

The second is Abel the first is Cain.

Their stories haunt us as well they should.

One was bad the other good.

In Christ the one was trusting

The other His grace withstood.

But better promises have we than they

For our children older and younger

In Christ’s Spirit thirst and hunger

And walk with Jesus day unto day.

Jesus redeems a brother’s brood.

Forgives and cleanses envious sin.

And as the greatest Elder Brother

Makes elder wicked brothers good.

Motherhood is before us.

Babies are our game.

But raising immortal souls will make us

Nevermore the same.

A mother’s love is not the only needed grace.

A father, too, to discipline

Boys who with downcast shameful face,

Convicted souls, confess and then

Bring forth works of repentance.

They turn from sin and take their place

That the one who would kill the other,

Will instead obey his mother.

And turn from sin’s accursed grip

To obey the law of father’s lip.

And bless his brother and his mother

And give him life instead of death.

For our children are Christ’s after

And to Him give their every breath.

For better is our Elder Brother

Than the older who killed the younger.

For Jesus is like no other

Nor rivals siblings in the womb.

His brotherhood by far is better

Returning life beyond the tomb.

He considers others than himself higher

Esteems them blessed while He forsaken

And gives them higher life the lower,

While His own life for them is taken.

And rather dies than kills

To show His blessed Father’s will.

To Him we look and learn the lesson

Sidelong looks of envy kill.

He is the greatest prized possession

And best of brother’s keepers still.

What hope we gain from this sad story

Of envy, pain and death?

To love the Lord of glory

And rest there upon His blessed breast.

Like John who loved Jesus deeply

Like brothers should who love like God.

But Jesus is the one who gave him

Life to love him back like God.

Love without envy, guilt or shame.

A love that sinful measures tame.

And life then in His Spirit

And joy and hope and love and grace.

For all that look upon their babies’ faces

See in that mirror the face of Jesus.

As Father looks to Son and sees

The perfect One by grace received.

So, we too, receive them still

By grace we hold them until

We give them back to Him with ease

And rest in God’s unending peace.