The Hindu poet and mystic, Sir Rabindranath Tagore remarked that “every child comes with the message that God is not discouraged of man.” Each new child arrives as a fresh start, a harbinger of hope, a light for a darkened world. Each birth is a sign of encouragement from a God who continues to believe in man. Similarly, the American poet, Carl Sandburg has stated that “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” Despite all the follies of a tired world, God has not given up on man and expresses His confidence in him by refreshing the world with new life.
Mortality is something that is built into the flesh of each human being. As people age, their bodies inevitably show signs of breaking down. Death is but a matter of time. But how is it possible that when people procreate, they do not bequeath to their progeny their age? New human life begins fresh and unsullied, like the first day of creation. Somehow, the new child is shielded from the ravages of time and the age of his parents. When the sheep, named Dolly, was cloned, in 1996, some thought that this would be a way of achieving a kind of cellular immortality. But Dolly was born old and exhibited premature aging before she was euthanized at age 6, ironically, on Valentine’s Day.
Dolly was cloned using a somatic or body cell. Procreation takes place when two sex cells, a male gamete and a female gamete, fuse and form a single human being. Here is at least an image of immortality since one generation after another can procreate human beings without endowing them with their own age. Offspring are truly younger than their parents. They are not “chips off the old block,” but are new “blocks” unto themselves. Parents endow their children with their DNA, but not with their age. Sex cells, therefore, can do something that somatic cells cannot do, namely start life over in its pristine originality and purity. Without this capacity to procreate truly new life, the human race would not have lasted more than one generation. It is a mystery as to why the sex cells can initiate new life again and again without there being any expiration date. The generations, at least from a biological point of view, can go on procreating without their progeny suffering any diminution. It is a spectacular example of how Mother Nature is able to keep Father Time at bay.
Fedor Dostoevsky, mindful of the freshness and innocence of new life, urged his fellow man to, “Love children especially, for they too are sinless like the angels; they live to soften and purify our hearts and, as it were, to guide us.” Young children seem to have arrived from a different realm, from a kind of Kingdom of the Blessed, where its inhabitants neither age nor sin. They make it easier for us to believe in heaven. At the same time, they announce to the world God’s message of hope and faith in man. And they elicit our love. Welcoming babies is like welcoming a guest from paradise.
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A mother holds her child and thinks to herself, “Where did you come from, little one?” “I cannot believe that you are merely the fusion of two gametes.” “How exquisitely you are formed in every precious detail!” Perhaps, as Kahlil Gibran mused, “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughter of Life’s longing for itself.” Our children come through us, but they are from God, who is both the Author and the Essence of life.
Nonetheless, God’s tiny emissaries of encouragement are not always regarded as such. They are often misinterpreted as burdens. Then, their message is extinguished before it can be understood. There is an old myth about birds that were, at one time, wingless. One night while they were asleep, God grafted wings onto their bodies. But the birds were upset and complained that these strange new appendages were terrible burdens. They demanded that they be released at once from these cumbersome inconveniences. But God said to them, “If you would only lift your burdens, you will find that you can fly.
Dr. Donald DeMarco is a Senior Fellow of Human Life International. He is professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario, an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College in Cromwell, CT, and a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest works, How to Remain Sane in a World That is Going Mad and Poetry That Enters the Mind and Warms the Heart are available through Amazon.com.
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