Welcome, Grady!
Today [Wednesday, ADF] was a special day. For the first time since Lyssabeth, a new baby was born into our family. Jeremiah’s niece, Lauryn, and her husband Chayce, welcomed little Grady to the world today. It is so fun to see those 10 perfect toes and sweet little lips and cheeks! And, we are thankful for modern medicine as Grady has had to have a little help keeping his oxygen up today.
If you know me personally or read my posts, you know that my mind tends to spiral quickly. I was thinking about the joy of Grady’s coming and then the thought hit me of what a hypocritical world in which we reside. I started thinking about the fact that long before today, I knew the great-nephew I would be welcoming was named Grady. There was a gender-reveal party and he even had outfits awaiting him with his name and initials. All of that is quite normal in today’s world. Rarely do we wait for a baby to actually be born to discover if we are having a boy or a girl.
So where does the hypocrisy factor in? Thankfully, for Grady, there is none. His parents (and all relatives) have acknowledged his individual personhood since even before the reveal party. But it made me think about the world in general. Some of the same people thinking up new and more creative ways to announce that they are having a boy or girl might not have even acknowledged that a previous infant – or to use their word fetus – was a person. Companies that sell special napkins and party gear to announce baby genders also give money to Planned Parenthood and assist in the murder of millions of little Jacks, or Janes, or …
Then I thought about something my own firstborn shared from his first week in his “Life of Christ” class at Freed-Hardeman University. Consider the following words spoken by Elizabeth in Luke 1:44: “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” Notice that the baby in her womb (who at this time was about 6 months along) reacted to a voice. But even more amazing, as Luke’s professor pointed out was the why … If you read the whole section from verse 26 to verse 45, you realize that Mary has just been told she is pregnant and immediately goes to visit her relative Elizabeth. Even given the longer travel times in their day when she approaches Elizabeth she can’t be more than a few days pregnant but the baby, John, in the womb of Elizabeth, recognizes the personhood of the baby in Mary’s womb – Jesus the Christ!
Let that sink in. Jesus was who He was even at only a few days after conception. And Grady was Grady. And Amber was Amber. You get the point. John’s reaction forever disproves that ensoulment happens later.
So yes: celebrate that baby coming. Hit a blue baseball or pop some pink balloons. But honor that they are a gift from God from the very moment they are conceived!
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” (Jeremiah 1:5)
To Receive Every Article from A Legacy of Faith through Email for Free, Click Here
AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
