For new babies, new life, a brand new little person with a beating heart and soft feet that have not yet felt the green grass or the grit of sand. For a healthy mind that can think and feel, for lungs that gasp and cry out as they experience filling with air for the first time. For eyes blinking at the sunlight, trying to focus and understand that other pair of loving parental eyes gazing right back. For thin dark hair, slowing rising into small curls as it dries. For little tummies quickly rising and falling 40 times a minute with each breath. For that fragile yet so strong little archipelago of bones down her back that protect her spinal cord from harm. Oh little one who will soon grow up too fast, I am so thankful to God for all of you, and for all that you stand for. Your birth is a reminder that we don't have hope because we have children, but we have children because we have hope. You, Lucy Eloise, are a living proclamation of your parents' faith and hope that God will keep his promises and will never leave you nor forsake you. Oh thank you Lord Jesus. Amen.
"From life's first cry, to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny"
