Giving Birth After Death?

She was the British Free Skating champion in 1989 and rated seventh in the world. And she was on the ice, teaching her beloved trade just before an undetected and very aggressive brain tumor caused a major blood vessel to rupture, resulting in brain death. She was also 26 weeks pregnant!

41-year Jayne Soliman was wed to Mahmoud Soliman in 2007. It was ‘love at first sight’. But that joy would soon be interrupted by a devastating miscarriage, only to then be replaced by the thrill of a healthy pregnancy. Life was great – for the moment. Little did the couple know that an unimaginable tragedy was again on their seemingly happy horizon.

After collapsing, Jayne was flown by air ambulance to the hospital only to be declared brain dead just hours later. It was then that a decision was made to keep her heart beating through life support since the mother’s body would be a superior incubator and best chance for the premature infant to survive. The doctors told Mr. Soliman there was nothing they could do for Jayne, but they needed her to stay strong for 48 hours of medical intervention geared to help the unborn child pull through. And that she did! Aya. a Korean word for ‘miracle’, was born and is now doing well in hospital. The grieving father, referring to his new miracle daughter, said, 'I will tell her what a lovely, lovely mum she had who would have loved her so much.”

The story of a shocking death so amazingly entwined with a new birth will lead some to think of the greatest life and death scenario ever known. Although Jayne Soliman’s first choice would have been to live to give birth and raise her child, God’s Son voluntarily died to make spiritual re-birth possible for all humanity – for those who were ‘born dead’ and destined to eternal peril. (Romans 3:23, Psalm 51:5, Galatians 4:3-5)

The Apostle John’s writings refer repeatedly to the new birth found only in Jesus Christ. In chapter 3 he records Jesus’ own words. “Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'" (John 3:5-8) And back in chapter one he affirms this exact truth. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)

There is no way of knowing, had Jayne Soliman’s circumstances been different, if her human love would have caused a voluntarily giving of her life to save her unborn child. She was fully unaware of her part in helping her child be born and survive. But the voluntary death of Christ’s on the cross reveals something more. His was a supernatural, infinite, and unconditional love, as revealed in Romans 5. Paul relates the depths of this divine love in verses 7-8. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Little Aya Solimon, and other survivors like her, are indeed a ‘miracle’ babies. All are a joy to grateful parents who benefit from modern medical technology. But she and every child ever born, regardless of their birth circumstances, will still need a second birth – an even more miraculous one. Every living soul requires the spiritual rebirth in Christ to survive the everyday effects and the unimaginable eternal consequences of human sin. The reason is beyond serious. “For the wages of sin is death...” But the remedy is beyond sensational! “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

“Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' (John 3:7)

Bill Breckenridge