The Night Before the Baby

Father, tomorrow there will be a new person on this earth.

We are not ready. We will never be ready. The bag is packed and the car seat is in. That is about as ready as we know how to be.

Watch over the body doing the hardest work it has ever done. Watch over the baby who has been hidden in a place only You can see.

When they come out, breathing the air for the first time, the room will not be the only thing they are entering. They are entering a whole life.

Make us the parents this child needs. Soften where we are sharp. Strengthen where we are scared. Quiet the voices in our heads that say we are about to do it wrong.

This child is already known by You. We are catching up. Welcome them gently into the world we are barely qualified to give them.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.