Thanks for Crying

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”  1 Thessalonians 5:18

I have a lot for which to be thankful.

My son Dax was born three weeks ago. He was born a very healthy eight pounds, four ounces. He smiles in his sleep, and he’s perfect in every way.

Lindsay made it through labor, and her mom was with us for two weeks helping us any and every way she could. She was a blessing, to say the least.

Members of our Growth Group and other friends brought us dinners that were so good I’m thinking of having knee surgery just to eat their cooking again.

These are happy times. It’s easy to be grateful to God for family and friends like these.

Not every moment is happy, though.

Our first night home from the hospital, for example, was so stressful and difficult that Lindsay had two crying boys to deal with: her newborn and her husband.

Dax was crying, and we couldn’t figure out what he needed. We held him, rocked him, burped him, tried to feed him, and changed his diaper, but he was still wailing, red-faced from all of the screaming.

When we finally got him to calm down–it was stubborn gas, by the way–I was scared that this was the new normal for our lives: a perpetually crying baby.

But there was this moment that I remembered when Dax breathed his very first breath where he wasn’t really crying, and it was scarier and more nerve-racking than the stubborn gas. He was making a gurgling noise, and the nurses had to suction out his lungs before we heard him give a good, strong cry to show us that he was breathing well.

That’s when I realized that there were two ways for me to deal with Dax’s crying: I could perceive it as an inconvenience or as a blessing.

I thank God when I hear Dax cry, now. It can still be inconvenient, sure, but I’d rather have that than relive those few minutes where he wasn’t able to cry.

In all circumstances–with Dax, with Lindsay, with friends and family–I’m finding reasons to give thanks to God, even for crying babies.