Menopause is cruel
When you haven’t experienced sleepless nights during pregnancy
your body hasn’t been prepared for sleepless nights during menopause
When you haven’t experienced interrupted nights after childbirth
your body hasn’t been prepared for interrupted nights during menopause
When you haven’t experienced the permanent exhaustion of child rearing
your body hasn’t been prepared for the relentless exhaustion of menopause
What price hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings and hormonal imbalance
when you haven’t experienced the joy of children?
You give and take away
but you haven’t given and yet you’re taking away
Menopause is cruel
When the possible turns into the impossible
When hope turns into despair
When this process doesn’t take nine months, but could take nine years
When unpredictability seems to last a lifetime
What hope?
Before we were formed in our mother’s womb, God knew us
He knew our purpose, our character, our joys, and our pain
He knew the things we would give birth to, even if it wasn’t another human being
In Jesus, he experienced sleepless nights of anguish
In Jesus, his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground
He knows, he understands
In the new heaven and the new earth there will be no menopause
Until then, we seek to honour God
through the physical, emotional and spiritual disorientation
Our bodies continue to be living sacrifices,
offered in worship as holy and pleasing to God
Anon