A Baby Brings Hope And A Future

Mornings have always been a process for me, like pulling me out of a deep well where my feet are sucked by muddy weights of dreams. Greeting each new day takes time and a dose of courage often fortified by coffee.

This morning through thick waking-up-soupiness, I reached for my phone and on its screen, a little baby face shone his eyes at me. In the murky dawn light I smiled.

You see, I’ve just become a “bisnonna,” as my Italian friends would name me. A Grandma performing an encore. A two generation Grandma. Twice Grandma. In other words, I am a Great Grandma.

And who could imagine I would find it such a delight?

Babies represent life, hope, and blessing. I mean who can look at that tiny little peanut, the son of my granddaughter and her husband lying so small in his big crib without a serious heart-melt?

The Christmas season approaches, and as I’ve experienced before, a tiny baby added to the family brings reality to the Jesus story. It reminds me of the longing of Mary, the protective instincts of Joseph, and the never-ending-necessities of a newborn.

Recently an article about antinatalists caught my attention. The movement believes it is morally wrong to have children. An antinatalist feels everyone should stop having babies. They believe that because life is imposed upon babies who have no choice in their birth or life, the loving and compassionate thing to do is to not inflict life on a child.

Without babies the world dies, but certainly something else happens as well.

As those shiny trustful eyes gaze up into another’s, a connection we need ensues. A person to person, big to little, independent to helpless, bonds us.

Without babies, the heart of compassion, love and empathy God intended for our souls would harden and become brittle.

We know this because birth was an essential piece of Christ’s entrance into our world.

We are shaped by the passing of old to new. We are jarred by awareness of  complete human need in miniature, and pulled from our own natural self-absorption. A world without babies, would sear us into something heartless and unrecognizable.

That little being, so vulnerable nestled in our arms, head soft against the curve of our necks, brings future and hope.

We enjoy a lot of sparkle, anticipation, and beauty in this season. But, without the Birth we celebrate at Christmas, the world has no hope and we have no future.

Jesus came purposefully. Life for the God-Man was not a fluke or accident. Nor was it an imposition. Birth was His choice.

 {Jesus} “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:7-8 ESV)

Christ, fully God yet fully man, was not an antinatalist. He submitted Himself  willingly to the skin of humanity with undeterred purpose and perfect love.

Perhaps had I not known the love of One Who yielded Himself to a supernatural conception, I could consider a world without babies.

If I had never been introduced to the God of the Universe who humbly grew nine months in His mother’s womb before He drew His first earthly breath, I might miss the purpose of New Life.

Maybe if I didn’t recognize it was a Mighty God who offered Himself, weak and vulnerable, to lie in a feeding trough, then I might not know how helpless in my sins I am without Him.

Perhaps apart from His own lowly birth, I would be unaware that a world without babies would be a world blind to the inestimable glorious value of every eternal soul.

As my granddaughter-mommy and grandson-daddy pull back the swaddling for family members to gaze and marvel, Mary also gently pulled back the cloths in which He was bundled.

Eyes lock and something happens in hearts. Hardness thaws and brittleness softens.

Undoubtedly “oh’s” and “ah’s” breathed over Jesus long ago in Bethlehem as the tenderness of a Child washed over each beholder and warmed hearts. Babies have done that since the beginning of time.

As I finger the screen-faced beauty of my great-grandson, I am humbled and awed again at the significance of the tiny Babe born long ago in the town of Bethlehem.

Christ loved us so much He chose birth. And so He chose death.

And this Christmas, a bisnonna’s heart, by its very awe and wonder over a newborn great-baby, marvels again at the privilege and miracle New Life brings to the world.Christ loved us so much He chose birth. And so He chose death. Share on X

* Feature Photo by Picsea on Unsplash