From the pulpit: A baby is for life, not just for Xmas

A NEW baby boy! Congratulations! Your first. We're so happy for you." The baby lies there no bigger than a man's hand. Red, wrinkled and bald-headed, he is helplessly dependent - an age-old baby for a new world.

"We're delighted," said the parents.

Delighted? She has just spent the nine most uncomfortable months of her life. The first three were supposed to bring morning sickness, but the nausea lasted all day.

There had been scares with hospital trips and tests. Then the all- clears. The last few weeks she just felt so tired. Her prediction that she would work up until the last week was false confidence.

And when the baby came it took them by surprise. Two weeks premature. Contractions, terror, telephone call, taxi.

Maternity hospital and more terror followed. No time for an epidural - she went straight into the delivery room.

Well meaning advice haunted her as she lay there. "It's the most wonderful experience of your life," Mrs Starry-Eyed Romantic had encouraged.

"The pain? You'll never suffer anything like it!" proudly announced Mrs Realist, the mother-of-five.

In the event it was more Hitchcock and Hammer than Disney. She heard herself utter words which had not passed her lips for many years. The pain was excruciating. She implored: "Jesus Christ."

A baby was born. It was all over. Or was it?

A couple had decided to have a baby but vowed that it would not change them. Their normal social life would continue.

She would still swim twice a week while he sweated at the gym. They would visit his parents every Sunday and her parents every other Saturday. She would return to work as soon as possible.

But they find it does not work like that. The baby refuses to fit into their schedule. He cannot speak, does not understand a word said and can barely focus to distinguish one shape from another.

Dumb, deaf and blind he still communicates powerfully. One cry says "feed me", another "change me" and another "hold me".

He becomes the master of the household. Feeding is every three hours. Where did sleep and time go?

Life has changed never to be the same again.

Then baby becomes a toddler who cannot be left alone. Ornaments are endangered, bookshelves are at risk and every journey is an ordeal.

You share the joy of his first birthday party, his first word, his first step, his first birthday, his first holiday, his first day at school, his first bicycle ride.

You meet his first girlfriend, congratulate him on his qualifications, encourage him in his first job, shed a tear at his wedding, look over old photographs together, anticipate the birth of a grandchild.

Whatever age, he will always be your child. You will be there for him and he for you.

You will laugh and cry, congratulate and console, hold and let go. He may have turned your world upside down, disrupted your plans, given life a new dimension, changed you irrevocably - but you would not have it any other way. It is all worth it.

December 27, 1998. The carol services are over. We have celebrated a baby's birth with eating and drinking.

We have opened the baby's presents and played with them ourselves. That Christmas baby will soon be packed away. Will normal life resume?

To some the birth of Jesus Christ is a meaningless myth enacted annually to please children and grandparents. It is about a god who appears dumb, deaf and blind to the world.

Yet to others it represents a wonderful yet painful experience when the Son of God takes over a life and changes it. They will never be the same again.

They will see God, themselves and others in a new Light. To them God definitely communicates powerfully. They see an age-old baby re- born for a new world.

We have celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ. But he is not just God at Christmas. You can make him yours for Life. It's worth it.

Copyright 1998 MGN LTD
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