A Blessed Women

The Metro bus can be a microcosm of God's Love at work. Last Friday on the 372 a women with two small children got on the bus. She had one of the children in one of those carriers that straps unto her shoulders and puts the child in front of her. The child looks toward the front, as does the mother. The other child held onto one hand of the mother. The other hand of the mom held onto a light weight stroller. She sat down, with one child in front of her and the other beside her. The mother's eyes looked tired.

I said, "You sure have your hands full."

She replied, "Not really."

The bus went along and soon the younger child tried to put her hat on. She succeeded, but backwards. The mother said, "Good job, backwards, but good job. High five." The mom stuck her hand out. The little one slapped it. Then the older one wanted to high five mom too. But the little one knew she was the one who earned it and wanted more high fives. soon the little one gave up and the mom stuck her hand on the side so the little one wouldn't see the older sister give a high five.

Next the older daughter showed the wet toe part of her shoes to her mother. Mom pointed out that it was from the rainy wet sidewalks outside. I pointed to mine and showed the girl that mine were wet, too. As did the mom. soon they got off as we reached their stop.

As they went past me, I said, "You are blessed."

The mom said, "Yes, I am."

Later that evening, my wife and I were sharing the events of our day. After I finished telling her about the blessed women, she asked me what the Biblical Significance of the encounter was. Off the top of my head I couldn't form the thought, except that the kids are blessing and that the interaction between the mom and her kids was precious.

Children are blessing to parents. In today's society, we ofter get the message that they are a burden not a blessing. We are told that they get in our way. That they will use up our money, after all on average it costs a quarter million dollars to raise a child, and even more if they get a top notch education. That children will keep us from doing the fun things! But proverbs says that they are like arrows in a man's quiver. That they are a blessing.

What are the roots that have changed the view of children being a burden instead of a blessing? One could say that it is a different world view. One that no longer sees the need to have children. But one that lets us take care of ourselves, or counts on social security for the needs of our later years. Also the advent of sophisticated Birth control, that put the me in the me generation.

But what is hugh is the doublethink that has been foisted upon us. Doublethink is a term that George Orwell coined in his book 1984, published in 1949. It is "To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it."

One of our daughters is about to give birth. It might even be today. What is interesting is how early on she referred to the child as a baby not as a fetus. My daughter wants this baby. Often when a baby is not wanted it is referred to as a fetus, or just a lump of tissue, thinking not that there is a beating heart inside that baby. Months ago, early in the pregnancy, my daughter and her husband played music for and talked to the baby, well before the babies third trimester. She understood that the baby was in his early developmental stage.

Even in days of old, the baby was understood to be unique while in the mothers womb. Luke, a physician, in the days of Jesus recorded how John leaped in his mothers womb. What is interesting is not so much that John was active in his womb, but that the word that John used for the baby in Elizabeth was the same word that he used when he described the baby Jesus when He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. So it is obvious that the physician John saw the unborn baby and the born baby in the same light, both as living humans.

What makes the lady on the bus really blessed is that she survived the pressure to murder her own babies, not after they were born but before they were out of the womb. Much of the pressure today comes in the form of an economic reason. I need more money for the things that I want to do. Or an entertainment argument, I need more time to go sking or fishing or to go dancing. The best blessing is that of loving life. How much richer when that life comes from oneself? although it is sometimes difficult, tiring and resource consuming giving of oneself is always a blessing that fills us up and doesn't let us down.