Tender Mercy

On the day my new-born granddaughter came home from the hospital, I was visiting, and happened to be holding the baby when the doorbell rang. Without even thinking, I went to the door and met a neighbor who was bringing a lemon pound cake in honor of the birth. I have never seen a face so transformed in such an instant as this neighbor’s face when she saw the new-born on my arm. “Oh!” She said, “I never dreamed I’d get to see her!” I never dreamed I could really see the baby, and here she is!” The woman’s whole demeanor changed; her eyes widened as if she couldn’t get enough of the baby’s sleeping face.

“For unto us a child is born,” (Isaiah 9:6) God’s strategy for bringing human beings back to Himself after the fall in the Garden, was hidden in the swaddling clothes of a series of infants positioned in time and place to fulfill God’s plan to restore His people to Himself: Isaac, a child of promise, Moses, a child rescued, Samuel, an answer to prayer, John the Baptist, a miraculous birth, and Jesus himself, both an ordinary, and a divine baby.

God knew that the continuity in the birth and growth of the children would be the glue to hold His nation together, and ultimately the whole world would be able to receive Him through His son. It wasn’t through armies and force, but through the most tender and vulnerable that God came to His people: “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms, but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.”

Hundreds of years later, Zachariah spoke of his baby son John, who would become “The Baptist”: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God.” (Luke 1:76-79)

The neighbor at the door was transported just by the sight of a lovely new-born baby. I believe that the spirit of joy and elation at the arrival of a new-born is close to God’s heart. He uses it to describe His infinite attraction to and love for His people. He shared that Spirit with the world in the chorus of angels who sang for the shepherds. No one could miss the love and tender mercy of our God toward children.

Love in Him,

Prue