The circle of life...
The other day I went in for my Secret Dad’s Stuff class at out local Family Birth Centre, as I met with the midwives there I was confronted with a dead baby, born just a few hours earlier. It was a bit of a shock, not something you expect to see everyday. My thoughts raced from how must the parents be dealing with all of this, to the midwife who was dressing the young baby, to the fathers to be I was just about to spend the next few hours with, to my own children.We don’t deal real well with death in our culture, we tend to hide it, not talk about it or dress it up with nice smells. We live in such a privileged place where very few babies die unnecessarily, yet in many parts of the world huge numbers don’t get to see their 1st birthday. It reminds me again of the words of the U2 song,Crumbs from your table
"Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die"As I had to confront my own uncomfortableness I again chose to resolve to try and do my bit to work for justice and equality and following Jesus in whatever small ways I could.
2 Comments:
Its hard stuff barro, I was at the hospital when the code was called 'neonate'. It had a differnt meaning to me know that I'm a father.
Secret Dad's stuff sounds fantastic. What a great idea.
I lost a baby at 12 weeks and that was traumatic enough; to give birth to, or to see your baby die soon after birth, must be unbelievably horrendous. Yet I know I do it myself: I think, 'African mothers see babies die all the time - it can't be so bad for them.' What a fallacy. To see a child that has lived inside you, suckled from you, die - so bad, so very bad.
Go on being Jesus where you can.
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