Just another kid?

My grandchild is due to be born tomorrow*.

I have three children and this is my fourth grandchild. Just another kid! No way! I have a sense of awe at the new life that the birth represents. Today, my son and his wife are a childless couple. Tomorrow they will have their firstborn to hold in their arms.

Of course, the first thing we want to know is the child’s gender. But then the bigger wonders: what will this baby grow to be like? What abilities will develop? What study and career path will shape its adulthood? How will this baby contribute to the family line as it grows, possible pairs off and reproduces?

It is an awesome event. Two adults come lovingly together as one flesh and a new life results.

In Christian view this event has an extra awesomeness, for the Bible speaks of all human life bearing God’s image (which is why it is not our call to wilfully destroy it. Gen 1:26-27; 9:6).  Irrespective of how beautiful, clever, helpful etc this new child is, the child has the highest worth because it bears God’s image. This child is a prince or princess of his kingdom and over his creation. And that is before it is able to do anything or actually does anything.

Compare that with the view of prominent atheist and ethicist Peter Singer: “Human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons”; therefore, “the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee.” Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 1st ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 122–23.

I’m thankful that my grandchild is born into a world that God rules and not Peter Singer. His criteria of human identity and worth seems rooted to what the (non)person can or cannot do. On that logic, its not just all newborns who need to watch lest he comes calling, but any person who has disability or the weaknesses of old age. This grim reaper’s calling card will be cast broadly.

Compare again with the Bible’s view that God watched over my unborn grandchild from conception: You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. … My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them (Ps 139:13-16).

Through his intricate paths of genetics and DNA God has set my grandchild’s nature. To me these mechanisms are mysteries before which I bow. Were I to understand the biological complexities behind my mysteries I expect I would the more in awesome wonder. The biology tells me how these happen. The Bible gives the back-story that shapes their meaning.

My grandchild is not a ‘thing’ waiting Singer’s inspection and certificate of humanity. Its worth does not depend on its capacities. And that is why I will love and treasure this child and would give my life for it. And it is why God loves and treasures this child and why the Son of God gave his life so it could be redeemed and live in fellowship with its maker.

The child is not just a ‘thing’ or just another kid.

* Update 2 March: I'm pleased to report that Xavier Alexander Burke arrived as expected and is much loved.