Thanksgiving for Babies
They represent some indisputable facts of life.
We do not recall our first experiences of being loved.
For a few years there at our beginnings, we were bundled, fed, changed, bathed, burped, kissed, sung to, adored, admired, talked to, and talked about — and all of it before we were aware or understood any of it.
So the first reason to be thankful for babies is because we are included.
Each of us once was one of those.
Humble beginnings indeed.
We couldn’t walk or talk.
What we were good at would later become activities we would not wish to discuss in polite company.
The reason I bring up thankfulness for babies is because they are not a major focus of my life at the moment,
and yet they are so precious and even important in their current state.
I, along with the rest of society, need them for who they are and what they do to help us right now. Ignore in my argument an justification they might have for some future usefulness.
I remember when those infants were my own and lived under my roof and how it seemed that season would never end.
How could such a little creature create so much laundry, for example, or require so much luggage when traveling?
And yet, it did end, and not without a little sadness. One day they just up a toddled off into childhood and beyond.
It is good to stop and remember the difficult and wonderful time of once having been babies and later caring for a few.
And perhaps what is most amazing about these little characters is they can give us a unique window into our Heavenly Father’s heart.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
Psalms 8:1-2 (ESV)
God doesn’t love babies for what they do but because they simply are.
And what they are is precious in his sight.
And it doesn’t change when we get older.
He is always our Heavenly Father.
He remembers our beginnings as if they were just yesterday.
I’m thankful that, like babies, we are always safe in his arms.
