About Rainbows and Redemption: Encouragement for the Journey of Pregnancy After Loss
Greetings in the name of our Lord! This is a project we believe God put on our hearts for mutual encouragement and edification. As a group of ten women from around the United States and Canada, we have all experienced Pregnancy After Loss [also known as PAL], and have been encouraged by others sharing both Scriptures and their PAL experiences with us. It has given us hope, pointed us to the Lord, and helped us feel less alone. Our intention is to capture some of this Scriptural encouragement in an e-book—a weekly devotional for women experiencing Pregnancy After Loss.
Many people consider a living baby following a loss their “Rainbow Baby” because they acknowledge that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a Rainbow Baby appears, it is a reminder that the storm happened and that the family is still dealing with its aftermath. It means that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color and hope.
Taking it one step further, many of us desire to convey a little more of the depth that the journey of PAL holds. It is a picture of utter Redemption: death followed by life. Life that is only there because of the death that preceded it.
Our title, “Rainbows and Redemption: Encouragement on the Journey of Pregnancy After Loss,” is a reminder that not only are these pregnancies and babies beautiful comforts after ravaging storms, but they are tangible redemption.
We set our release date to go live with this project for Easter weekend because no time of the year could possibly be more fitting. Life after death. Redemption. Glorious hope.
The Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is like a picture of the entire PAL journey. Death has happened before, and you are still reeling from it. You have seeds of hope growing within you but you have no idea what tomorrow holds. As Kristi wrote once in her article Stuck in Saturday:
Saturday begins when the worst pain is behind you, but a throbbing ache has taken its place. When the sun dares to shine, but your world is still dark. When the abuse is in the past, but not the hurt and shame. When you are no longer hemorrhaging, but neither are you healed. When the rest of the world expects you to be “over it”, but you’re not.
Where are you? Have you experienced the darkness of Good Friday? Do you feel stuck in your Saturday, not really sure where God is and why He withheld His hand of protection from your life? We, too, can follow the example of Jesus’ followers.
Rest. Reflect. Retreat from the frenzy of the world. Talk with others. Don’t be afraid to ask God the hard questions. And do all of this with an element that the disciples didn’t have.
Hope.
They didn’t know what Sunday would hold. They weren’t waiting for a miracle. They were just waiting.
But we know that Jesus rose, and just as He did on that first Easter, God longs to move us from Good Friday to Resurrection Day.
When that resurrection comes, it will not erase the past. Easter Sunday did not change the fact that the crucifixion, in all of its ugliness, had happened. His followers would never forget that day. And there was no “getting back to normal” either. They didn’t return to their former lives of following an itinerant teacher and healer around Judea. No, they went forward into their “new normal” characterized by God’s power and presence in a way they had never dreamed possible.
But first, you have to get through Saturday.
So as you navigate the coming weeks and months of your PAL journey, please allow these devotional entries to encourage you and comfort you—the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you—through the ups and downs, joys and anxieties. Allow us to share our PAL struggles and victories with you, as we seek to comfort you with the comfort that we ourselves have received from our Father on our own PAL journeys. You will find weekly devotionals here that you can meditate on from week to week (read in our compiled order, or look through the Table of Contents to find a passage or title subject that addresses your current needs and situation), as well as a section of Special Resources at the end for unique milestones and chapters of the PAL journey that may arise at various points during your pregnancy and beyond. May the Lord use our feeble words to strengthen you by His sovereign grace.
~Contributing Editors, Kristi & Melissa~
Many people consider a living baby following a loss their “Rainbow Baby” because they acknowledge that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a Rainbow Baby appears, it is a reminder that the storm happened and that the family is still dealing with its aftermath. It means that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color and hope.
Taking it one step further, many of us desire to convey a little more of the depth that the journey of PAL holds. It is a picture of utter Redemption: death followed by life. Life that is only there because of the death that preceded it.
Our title, “Rainbows and Redemption: Encouragement on the Journey of Pregnancy After Loss,” is a reminder that not only are these pregnancies and babies beautiful comforts after ravaging storms, but they are tangible redemption.
We set our release date to go live with this project for Easter weekend because no time of the year could possibly be more fitting. Life after death. Redemption. Glorious hope.
The Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is like a picture of the entire PAL journey. Death has happened before, and you are still reeling from it. You have seeds of hope growing within you but you have no idea what tomorrow holds. As Kristi wrote once in her article Stuck in Saturday:
Saturday begins when the worst pain is behind you, but a throbbing ache has taken its place. When the sun dares to shine, but your world is still dark. When the abuse is in the past, but not the hurt and shame. When you are no longer hemorrhaging, but neither are you healed. When the rest of the world expects you to be “over it”, but you’re not.
Where are you? Have you experienced the darkness of Good Friday? Do you feel stuck in your Saturday, not really sure where God is and why He withheld His hand of protection from your life? We, too, can follow the example of Jesus’ followers.
Rest. Reflect. Retreat from the frenzy of the world. Talk with others. Don’t be afraid to ask God the hard questions. And do all of this with an element that the disciples didn’t have.
Hope.
They didn’t know what Sunday would hold. They weren’t waiting for a miracle. They were just waiting.
But we know that Jesus rose, and just as He did on that first Easter, God longs to move us from Good Friday to Resurrection Day.
When that resurrection comes, it will not erase the past. Easter Sunday did not change the fact that the crucifixion, in all of its ugliness, had happened. His followers would never forget that day. And there was no “getting back to normal” either. They didn’t return to their former lives of following an itinerant teacher and healer around Judea. No, they went forward into their “new normal” characterized by God’s power and presence in a way they had never dreamed possible.
But first, you have to get through Saturday.
So as you navigate the coming weeks and months of your PAL journey, please allow these devotional entries to encourage you and comfort you—the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you—through the ups and downs, joys and anxieties. Allow us to share our PAL struggles and victories with you, as we seek to comfort you with the comfort that we ourselves have received from our Father on our own PAL journeys. You will find weekly devotionals here that you can meditate on from week to week (read in our compiled order, or look through the Table of Contents to find a passage or title subject that addresses your current needs and situation), as well as a section of Special Resources at the end for unique milestones and chapters of the PAL journey that may arise at various points during your pregnancy and beyond. May the Lord use our feeble words to strengthen you by His sovereign grace.
~Contributing Editors, Kristi & Melissa~
