baby pictures
"She took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank." —Exodus 2:3
Imagine a homemade basket floating on a river. Inside this basket is a crying, three-month-old baby boy. This baby will grow up to save the Israelite nation from slavery.
Imagine a newborn Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger (Lk 2:7). This Baby has been born in a stable and is surrounded by animals. This Baby is God and the Savior of the world.
Imagine the several thousand babies who will be aborted today surgically or chemically. See them floating and growing inside their mothers. These babies will be starved to death, poisoned, or dismembered today. These babies were destined to be children of God.
These three sets of baby pictures separated by thousands of years are related. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how the middle picture of Jesus is the picture of life and freedom. There is one Baby picture we need to look at constantly. Fix your eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2), the Savior and Hope of the world.
Prayer: Father, make me stop staring at myself.
Promise: "For the Lord hears the poor, and His own who are in bonds he spurns not." —Ps 69:34
Praise: Highly gifted intellectually, St. Bonaventure put that gift to the service of God's people as well as practicing compassion and courtesy.
Reference: (For a related teaching, order our tape Developing A Deep, Personal Relationship with Jesus on audio AV 52-1 or video V-52.)
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, December 29, 2002
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 31, 2002