Clearly, the world loves babies.
It’s no accident. If you look at it scientifically, we ensure the survival of our species if we have a deep admiration for our young. That’s the stodgy, clinical answer to the question, “Why?” But there’s more…
Why else do we love babies? Because they’re a continuation of our own selves, or in other words we can see ourselves mirrored in them, we recognize and remember through them. We also see our future more clearly as we see the steps they take to learn and grow. Does it take long for a baby to learn to count? Yes. The first ten numbers take a long time. The first one hundred numbers take a little longer. It’s a beautiful process, but it’s also valuable to watch, to observe it happening. We can see, even though we’re grown, we have more to learn.
What is our fascination with babies, and who are some of our most recent muses?
There’s baby Groot. “Sooo cute!” There’s baby Kal-el, who many refer to as Superman, so baby Kal-el is baby Superman. There’s baby Yoda, who many Star Wars fans refer to as The Child.
And there’s the greatest baby of all: baby Jesus.
Baby Jesus is greater than baby Groot, baby Kal-el, and baby Yoda combined.
Granted, the three lesser are fictional characters. Real babies are going to be greater than fictional babies every time we compare them, but it comes down to the reasons we adore baby Jesus. He was the answer to all of our worst problems. We have this death thing hanging over our heads from the moment we’re born and Jesus came to correct it. Three days after he died he was born again as a resurrected being. We also have the regrets of our sins threatening us with eternal punishment, but Jesus is our advocate in the courts of heaven. He suffered for our sins.
When he was born, the spiritual world rejoiced, the mortal world rejoiced. They knew, as we know, the birth of the Christ, the Anointed One, meant the beginning of the end for death and sin. And surely the Savior accomplished what he was born to do.
So, as Christmas comes this year, don’t forget to say, “Happy Birthday baby Jesus!”
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