Miscarriage & The Gospel

Who wants to have stuff to write about miscarriages? Not me! But like it or not, this is part of my story and I do find writing about it to be good for me. I hope it’s good for you to read about it, too.

Here are some of my posts about our miscarriages: 
A Voice in Ramah : How to think about miscarriage like a christian, in terms of the gospel.
Thoughts on Weeping With: How to care for others after a miscarriage. 
Only A Dry Tree? Thoughts on loving the have-nots this Mother’s Day 
(The encouraging news from Isaiah is the promise of a “name better than sons and daughters” for those who hold fast to God’s covenant. We know that name now: Child of God.)
Toenails (Thoughts on grief and painting toenails after our third miscarriage).
Too Heavy (God doesn’t owe me an explanation, and it might not be one that would make me happy anyway. The doctors owe me any information they have, but they can’t always figure things out or solve them. I am glad I didn’t always know the future in past difficulty, and that same troubling ignorance may be a blessing now, too. And maybe if I preach it loud enough to myself today, it will be easier to believe when I stop wanting to.)
To Laugh or Cry? (This unpredictable mix of joy and sadness is all as it should be for now, I think.)
Twins… Psych! (Sometimes I’m giddy with joy, but sometimes I just try to ignore the shriek in my soul asking what maniacal mystery it is that some people get two of them at the same time?! )
Our Journey to Parenthood: Guest post at Emily Jensen Writes.  (My journey to parenthood has taken a twisted road at best, and the destination is not going to look like I expected. Most days I wonder if I’ve reached my final destination already. I don’t know! But, “My comfort in my affliction is this: your promise preserves my life.” (Psalm 119:50) That promise does not necessarily include having a child. Instead, as a Christian this promise guarantees something infinitely more satisfying: beholding what great love the Father has given to me, that I am his child, and as such I will share in the perfect, unending joy of God the Father, my good shepherd. This is hard to say, but it is true: the journey to parenthood may not make me a parent, but it is making me a child.)

On Miscarriage & Reading The Bible. How understanding the Bible as one “big picture” story unlocked hope when topical studies and word searches don’t help.
Present Joy & Past Sorrow: What mothering teaches me about my miscarriages.

And experiencing pregnancy & parenting after miscarriages: 
Stirred by That Ghost – a real pregnancy announcement, and my favorite poem from Wendell Berry.
A Brave Vocation(Those years of difficulty and wrestling revealed that childless mothering is still a legitimate vocation, even when I resented it. Sometimes I still do. What is it, really, to be a mother? Isn’t it essentially to love, to give yourself away, to be brave? And isn’t that required even more of a woman who grieves a child than a woman who raises one?)
Overlap (Today I know beyond any doubt that I was created for eternity, proved like C.S. Lewis says, by desires and love that cannot be satisfied by anything on earth. I dearly love two babies, each formed in the image of God, and the strange timing of these pregnancies does not diminish either of them. … I can’t expect this coming baby to answer these questions when I know I have never lacked the only promised child I have ever needed. The remedy for the consequences of the fall is the gospel, not having a baby.)
Under the Shadow (Mother’s Day 2015)  (The difficulties of life before and after the arrival of a baby are both satisfied by the same faithful promises of help and joy. Even with the reality of parenthood, the true satisfaction of life is not found in relation to a human child but a heavenly father.)

Here are some other web articles I have appreciated about how the gospel is good news in the face of a miscarriage:

The Baby Given to Women who Miscarry, by Jessalyn Hutto at The Gospel Coalition. 
Looking to Christ in the Loss of a Child by Jason DeRouchie at Desiring God.
Truth in Love: Biblical Response to Miscarriage by Rebekah Hannah at Gospel Taboo.
The Miscarriage Secret by Caitlin Lubinski
Miscarriage and Mother’s Day discussion with Jessalyn Hutto and Trillia Newbell at ERLC.
The Secret Sisterhood by David Smith at Grounded in the Gospel.

I highly recommend Jessalyn Hutto’s blog and her book “Inheritance of Tears”  from Cruciform Press.

And here are some other pieces that may be helpful:
Natural Miscarriage Story. (This is extremely graphic, even more so than the average “birth story,” but it would have been good to read before it happened to me.)
How Miscarriage Affects a Marriage, by Lindsey Bell. 
Couples at Greater Risk of Breakup After Pregnancy Loss by Amanda Gardner at CNN.  (Okay, that’s not so positive, but I think this is an important and under-mentioned aspect of miscarriage recovery.)
Sorrow to Serenity by Kathryn at Team Whitaker. (I love how each of their encounters with their priest friends blessed them in different, complementary ways.)
How Abortion Has Changed the Discussion of Miscarriage, by Becky Thompson.
Why Miscarriage Matters if you’re Pro-Life, from The Lewis Note.
You Are A Mom, from Liz Marie Blog.

Hidden Losses: Supporting a friend after miscarriage, Part 1 by Julia Hogan at Verily. 
Hidden Losses: Supporting a friend after miscarriage, Part 2 by Julia Hogan at Verily. 

Why We Don’t Talk About Miscarriage from Gracy Olmstead at The Federalist.
Making Sense of A Miscarriage by Holly Cave at Mosaic Science   (“I thought to grieve you had to have lost something you’d met – like a person that you had talked to – or you could grieve over a baby that maybe you’d held,” she tells me. “I didn’t know anything about grief… I didn’t know whether I should leave that to people who had lost actual people, not a very, very tiny baby that you’ve never met.” … One tiny life has ended, and mine goes on.)