Osler's Razor

Last night, there were mothers across the United States anxiously watching over their children: Making macaroni and cheese, creating last-minute prom solutions, taking temperatures. There is worry and concern with all this. My own dear mother is in Provence, half a world away, but I don't doubt there is still worry in her thoughts, concern for what I might be messing up today.

But... there is still that baby within each of those children, that pure innocent creation of God.

There is this moment, with a newborn baby, where that child is nothing but potential and love. You mothers remember that moment-- holding that tiny thing, the fingers like peanuts, the whole of that loved being lying on your right arm, tiny feet at your hand and the downy head at your elbow. You looked in that baby's eyes, and there was love, just pure love, nothing else, no worries, no danger, just that wreath of love.

It is always there. It is there now, that feeling, perhaps buried or mixed with a tidal pool of hurt and challenges, but it is there. You see it in mothers, if you are in criminal law, the mothers of defendants, and it is one of the most overwhelming things if you bother to actually see it-- that the purity of that moment is still there.

If you are a mother, think of that moment, and see it in your child. For the rest of us, consider the moments that the pure love of a mother became clear for a moment, the beauty of that, and rest well in the knowledge that God acts through people, those people who bring forth the light and the hope for the world.