Holding Babies

On the subject of Babies.

Have you ever wondered if Our Lady let people hold baby Jesus? Surely she let the Kings hold Him, and Simeon, and the shepherds. All the hands that touched Him and held him close. Perfumed and ringed hands, the rough, dirty, sheep smelling hands, and very old and wrinkled hands. Perhaps some sticky kisses by younger shepherds. And later, when living in Egypt, I am sure she let all sorts of people hold Him. Egyptian mothers who admired him, perhaps other Jewish mothers who found themselves in the same exile as she was. Old widows dressed in black and saddened by loneliness, young girls dreaming of husbands and a home and baby of their own. She let everyone hold Him With a generous trust. Oh the beauty and the scandal both. God so close to be held and squeezed and kissed and burped and admired, and talked to with loving sounds. What LOVE she had for others in consenting to the human need in us hold Him to ourselves. And what LOVE He had to come to us in a bundle no longe than 25 inches.

Being the youngest of eight children, I never had babies around me. And when I grew up and got married, I loved my babies, held them, kissed them and hugged them. But I never sought out other people's babies. I am not a baby finder at parties. I didn’t meet moms at the door with open arms eager to hold that squirming bundle. It is just not something I ever did. So, I found it a bit surprising that people wanted to hold my babies. And I learned to LET them.

My children had an uncle who loved newborns. Couldn’t get enough of them. And the feeling was mutual. We called him the baby whisperer. He greeted me at the door at every party and asked for the baby with smiling eyes. His face would transform and he would gently rock them. Old ladies at showers wanted to hold them. Teen aged boys in their awkward stage would hold my babies and suddenly become transfixed and genuinely surprised that the baby actually smiled up at them just because and not because they had done anything. The look of gentleness on a 16 year old boy's face holding a baby is a gift of precious value.

Babies are magical. They feed the lonely heart, they bring beauty to those who need to see a human face that asks for nothing and gives only trust in return. Babies make people laugh who have not laughed in a long time. They fill the arms of grandmothers who see their own child's face once again looking up at them. They make grandpas do crazy things and talk googly talk that they would never be caught doing at any other time.

God bless babies. And let them be held and squeezed and laughed at. They don't mind. And when we hold them, let's recall that if Mary were here today in front of us, SHE would let us hold HIM. And what would that be like, I wonder? Blessed be the Humanity of Jesus. Blessed be every single baby on earth. And let them ALL BE BORN to bless the world that so needs to be blessed.