Your fear for the infant’s body is a feverish anxiety, and you are like a patient who, delivered from sickness, runs back to the sickbed. You pray the child be healthy, yet you are terrified that her mother, who focuses on what is natural, will neglect the physicians. But tell me, which is the true health to seek? The body is “partial” health, for even the circumcision of the old law only staved off destruction of the flesh, yet I say, “I have made a whole man healthy.” Judge not, then, according to appearance, by the outward sign of a needle or a doctor’s visit. The greater malady is the soul’s, and a child placed without molestation into God’s pasture, fed by Him, will remain within, and none shall thrust him out. Do not be so desperate that you wish for a change “the minute” the child is born, as if a sudden, painful punishment were the only path to grace. Pray rather that the mother, who labors with the more grievous burden of childbirth, receives from you a return in spiritual things which surpasses all bodily care. She has need of you to show a freedom and security that does not come from flattering physicians or feigning trust in man’s power, but from despising this wealth of worry which binds you with toils and turmoil.
Your terror for your husband’s appointment reveals the same sickness. You think security will come if a man listens and decides in your favor, that this will “change everything” and let you “feel secure.” This is to lay up treasure in the midst of thieves, for the favor of men is a false testament. Even if he prevailed, you could not insure him bodily health, and you would still be bound by anxiety lest you lose what was gained. The conqueror is he who loses all that he has and keeps his piety with strictness. Did God not approve us and entrust us with the Gospel because He found no worldly consideration in us? So then, speak and pray, not as trying to please men who prove hearts for their own purposes, but as one speaking to God who proves our hearts. Entrust this case not to the judge’s opinion, but to Him, and you will enjoy what you have quietly and with great security, valuing His approval more than any earthly decision.
And your son, for whom you plead for a changed body and a person to meet, why do you seek for him a bondage you call a desire? What sort of desire is it to be subject to a tyranny of the flesh? The weight you see is the smaller poverty. O wretched and miserable one, to be high-minded about losing a few pounds while the soul perishes from a most grievous disease! You cannot transfer his bodily health for him any more than you can carry your gold to heaven on a camel. For this removal, God has relieved you of the need for beasts of burden; he requires only the poor, the lame, and the infirm. Instead of longing for him to meet “his person,” long for him to meet the poor Christ in those who are hungry. Let him transfer his wealth there, and he will find a desire that is not a flitting shadow but a treasure and a seed that bears fruits which never die.
Therefore, let the whole family cease its bondage to this flattery of security from men and health of body alone. You have not been entrusted with the Gospel of error or unclean anxiety. You have been approved of God for a greater health. Let that beautiful new life coming into your family be greeted not with a terror-stricken heart that seeks to control every physician’s hand, but with the freedom and entire security of one who knows the true pasture. Send your riches forward to your own city without delay, while you are yet in strength. Lay them up in a place inviolate and safe, where no death, no failed appointments, no false testimonies can take them. For if you do, you will surpass all these fleeting fears and have them safe in that day.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
