A New Birth

Yesterday we spent the day with our son, John's family. It was his wife, Kim's, birthday so we had a nice dinner together to celebrate the occasion. We also got to attend their church. It is always enjoyable to listen to one's son preach the Word.

We sat near the back of the church. A family with three sons walked into the row ahead of us. The mom's mother was with them because a very exciting thing had happened in their family life. One of the sons was a week old. He looked darling in his pastel blue baby boy clothes and little knit hat. As I watched the family, I was struck with the way they unashamedly expressed to all those around them their happiness over this new little guy.

1. Mommy held him first and snuggled him close.
2. Grandma was the next one to jiggle and wiggle him.
3. The three year old stood up on the pew and tried to get a bird's eye view of his little brother slugging down two ounces of formula. He stroked the little head with gentleness and love.
4. The two older kids went to children's church so Daddy got into the act. First of all, he leaned over to the little fellow in his mother's arms and rubbed his hand over the baby's head, forth and back, forth and back. Then he leaned in and kissed him.
5. The next order of business was that Daddy reached over with his bigness (big guy with beautiful black hair combed to perfection) and scooped up the baby and soon the tiny baby was invisible in Daddy's strong arms.

The whole experience was enjoyed by several people sitting in the row we were in. I would see people lean forward a bit to watch with delight. I couldn't help but smile often.

I thought of the similarity to all this excitement when a person becomes a new child of God. How God delights over that newly found child. The people of God show that person all kinds of attention and love at his rebirth. Can't you just see God the Father leaning over and scooping his new child into his arms for safety, protection and love?