Think of how a bird must feel the first time it is pushed from the nest by its mother. The feeling must begin with fear, but as the bird stretches its wings and soars, it becomes exhilaration. Risk is a part of all achievement. A risk-free life is terribly dull.
Runners describe a feeling called the “runners high.” It only comes after the runner has pushed past his fatigue and kept on going when every cell of his body is yelling for him to stop. The feeling of exhaustion yields to the feeling of euphoria. It happens only if we are willing to keep on going when we feel like quitting.
There are also those surrogate mothers: people who filled the role of mother or were a mother figure to children who were not biologically theirs. Many have been blessed by foster mothers and step-mothers, and even by neighbors who provided a mother image when it was needed. Let us be thankful for them and express our thanks to them as well.
Someone has said that a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
A certain father had a little daughter who kept a daily notebook. On one page she drew a picture of her father and carefully printed his name and address. When asked why, she explained. She had been watching a movie about amnesia. She said, “if I ever forget who I am I want everybody to know who I belong to.”
Samson forgot to whom he belonged. Every child must come to know that he or she does not just belong to Mother and Dad. The child also belongs to the church—the community of faith. And most importantly, the child belongs to God.
When they tempted Jesus with the coin for taxes he asked, “Whose image is this?” They answered, “Caesars’s. Jesus replied, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” if I put a child in the midst and ask “Whose image is this?” some would say the image of his father, or the image of her mother. More than that, every child bears the image of God. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.