Babies

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to drive through the countryside through the hills and fields of Wellington and Bruce counties’ most excellent pasturelands, lush grassy expanses (one of the pluses of all this rain we’ve experienced). What a joy to spend that time just soaking in the solitude of perfect spring weather along secondary roads, not much bothered by traffic or pressures to hurry or get out of the way. A great way for an “introvert” to spend the day!

One thing I noticed on every side was the great abundance of babies in those fields! Calves and lambs and foals abounded. Slow driving, even pulling off to watch newborns in play or in exploring or just “being” there in that lush pasture was lovely. So many babies! What an image of the great generosity of creation.

And of potential. I recall reading of an encounter between inventor and scientist Michael Faraday and his queen. Electricity in the earliest days of the nineteenth century looked much more like a parlor trick or illusion practised by amateur magicians. Queen Victoria was interested. She invited Faraday to lunch and visited his laboratory. [Note: you might be interested to know that Faraday had to miss church to have lunch with the queen and was expelled from his eldership and even his membership in his congregation who did not think his excuse for missing worship was sufficient.]

The queen enjoyed his “tricks” but didn’t see much practical use for this “new” phenomenon.

“Of what use is this electricity of yours, Mr. Faraday?” she asked.

“Madam, of what use is a baby?” was his wise response.

I suspect some of our human fascination with babies, especially our own human babies, is our subconscious awareness of the amazing potential for a future as yet unimagined. What lies before the babies we welcome so warmly in our midst? It is very normal for the presider to offer a special welcome to the baby in the front row—just as she did, yesterday at the church I attended. We are all so happy to have a baby in our midst. Even a baby who may be noisy or distracting, as our baby was not, is much more troublesome to his or her own parents than to most of us, really.

A baby’s presence speaks to the future. GTA West congregation yesterday took a step towards that future. They will seek out a location where they can most fully live out the mission they are feeling called to explore. Many members spoke of their faith in stepping into that as yet uncertain future. They shared their sense that they are being summoned into a new area where they may serve the community better. Realizing that they don’t have all the answers yet, they rest a bit on the confidence of the wise elders who spoke of taking this journey before. They listened to the voices of the young adults who promised to seek out those who need the blessings of this community.

It was a meeting that felt quite a lot like that experience in the country the day before. Babies, potential, grace, generosity and wonderful future imagined.

Posted by Marion