Hey Baby!

Christmas past: As I was coming home by plane one December, I settled in my seat and was praying. I had my eyes closed and was lost in thoughts of God. At one point, I got the strange sensation that God was watching me pray. The thought made my smile, God felt so close.

Eventually, I opened my eyes and was startled to see a baby there! There she was, little one year old Victoria, in her mother’s arms in the seat in front of me, resting on her mother’s shoulder, and staring right at me with a tiny smile. With a big pink ribbon in the few strands of hair she had and an adorably chubby face looking up at me, Victoria made me wonder:

Does God look at us through the eyes of others? Does God do that? If He wanted an unclouded vision of world, would God find one by looking around at the world through the eyes of a baby? I’d never had a reflection like that before, God peeking out at me, delighting in me, through a child.

It was a reflection that led me to think about Christmas. Why does God choose Incarnation? Why does He choose to enter our world in little Jesus, a flesh and blood, tiny baby?

As I thought about it, I imagined that at least part of the reason is to reveal what His love for us is really all about. When you think about it, God’s love really is, in a sense, very child-like. It is undiscriminating. It is for everybody. A little baby, like Victoria, loves you no matter what you do, and just thinks you’re wonderful.

A baby doesn’t judge. Leaning over the crib of a new baby, we can do no wrong. Their innocence inspires us to do silly things, make goofy faces and noises because we know that they will love every minute of it, they will never reject us, they will see only good in us, and delight in us.

Kind of like God does.

God delights in us. He chooses to look at us even now with the eyes of child. He never gets cynical, never gives up on us. He chooses to see the best, to hope for the best, to call us to the best and He invites us to do the same with others.

May God give us all the eyes of a child, to look for and to delight in the good that surrounds us each day. Have a blessed Advent and Christmas season!