TOUCHING LIFE
"Preserve my life according to your love." (Psalm 119:88)
The sounds of the delivery room receded to a quiet murmur of post-delivery activities and near-whispered comments between the parents.
The father, gowned, with a hair net and masked face, leaned forward, touching the child who was cuddled to the mother. She looked down on the baby who was scowling, her eyes tightly shut. With a sense of awe, the mother stretched forth one finger to gently smooth the child's wrinkled
forehead. The need to touch her daughter was urgent, yet she was careful.
Developmental psychologists who have examined the process of childbirth and witnessed thousands of deliveries inform us that the need to gently touch one's newborn is a near-universal impulse crossing all cultural boundaries. Obviously, we have been created with an innate need to
physically connect with our offspring.
In this sense, we are very much like God.
In the "Creation of Adam," one of Michelangelo’s famous frescoes that decorated the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he portrays the hand of Adam outstretched with a finger pointed. Opposite to it you see the hand of God in a similar pose reaching towards man. The two fingertips are nearly
touching. No image clearly reveals the Father's heart. He is ever-reaching out His hand to touch, with gentleness and love, those who are created in His own image.
Mothers and God share a common bond then, do they not? Both possess a deep reverence for life that they have brought into the world. Both yearn to touch those made in their image.
"Preserve my life according to your love." (Psalm 119:88)
The sounds of the delivery room receded to a quiet murmur of post-delivery activities and near-whispered comments between the parents.
The father, gowned, with a hair net and masked face, leaned forward, touching the child who was cuddled to the mother. She looked down on the baby who was scowling, her eyes tightly shut. With a sense of awe, the mother stretched forth one finger to gently smooth the child's wrinkled
forehead. The need to touch her daughter was urgent, yet she was careful.
Developmental psychologists who have examined the process of childbirth and witnessed thousands of deliveries inform us that the need to gently touch one's newborn is a near-universal impulse crossing all cultural boundaries. Obviously, we have been created with an innate need to
physically connect with our offspring.
In this sense, we are very much like God.
In the "Creation of Adam," one of Michelangelo’s famous frescoes that decorated the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he portrays the hand of Adam outstretched with a finger pointed. Opposite to it you see the hand of God in a similar pose reaching towards man. The two fingertips are nearly
touching. No image clearly reveals the Father's heart. He is ever-reaching out His hand to touch, with gentleness and love, those who are created in His own image.
Mothers and God share a common bond then, do they not? Both possess a deep reverence for life that they have brought into the world. Both yearn to touch those made in their image.
* DEAR LORD, through a mother's touch
and love manifested so dearly to her new-born child, thank you for reminding me
of your great love for me. I love to dwell upon the thought that You lovingly
touch my life because You care for me. In times of joy and in times of
difficulty You are always by my side. It matters not what life may bring, for I
know that even while I was still in my mother's womb you already took care of
me and would keep me to the end of my days. Lord, You're my guide and my
refuge...I never walk alone.
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