Health, the most important part?

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Well-meaning person: "Do you want a boy or a girl?"

Pregnant couple: "Oh, it doesn't matter to us. We'd be delighted with either."

Well-meaning person: "Right, as long as it's healthy. That's the most important part!"


Um, no it isn't.


When people wish me a healthy baby, I know they mean well, but do they really understand what they are saying? It makes it sound like unhealthy babies are less desirable, something you wouldn't actually want.

Yes, the complexities that parenthood brings about are often in greater abundance with children who have special needs, but is that the end of the world? Is that the most important part? Do you know anyone with a child with medical needs or a social behaviour problem who would return their child if they could?

Let's take a more specific example, do you know of anyone who would rid their Down Syndrome child? In my opinion, they are some of the most peaceful, beautiful children loved dearly by their parents {yet 91-93% of fetuses diagnosed with Down Syndrom in the womb are aborted (Prenatal Diagnosis 19 (9): 808–812)}

I think these kinds of wants and decisions exemplify the limit of our human mind!! We want what our feeble minds can muster up as to what is best. But remember, we don't know what is best for us. Moreover, this world isn't even about us. Not at all. Not even when it comes to 'our' kids. They are gifts from God, and it's the Lord's will that is the most important part. He knows infinitely more than us. He was here before us and will continue to be here after we pass on.

When you wish someone a healthy child, what you probably really mean is that you want the best for their child (which is nice) but you are also saying that you know what is best.

As I watched B (the 13 month old I babysit on Wednesdays) trying miserably to put the colourful stacking rings on the cylinder, I wonder if that's how God sees us sometimes. Fumbling, trying to do things our way (a way that just won't work), when it is so crystal clear to him what needs to be done and what we need in order to get those things done.


I pray that the Lord's will be done, not mine, for this young life within me. I pray that he blesses my child to be part of his perfect will, no matter what that means for me. It isn't easy to do; if I were to admit my worldly human desires, a healthy full-term baby would be lovely. But if I am to focus on my heart's desire, which is far closer (yet I realize still far from) inline with the greatest thing in life, I pray for the Lord to bless our child, to create him or her in his perfect image (which we all are, as flawed as we all are!) and to use him or her in his perfect will.

God knows each of us. He created all of us the way we are on purpose.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

Psalm 139:13