That’s the estimate of how many times a child will be changed before earning their potty training degree.
7,000. A daunting number that could prompt any sane couple to double-think the parenting thing. Yet they choose it. Sometimes they even choose to have an additional child before the first one has graduated from Huggies.
Why such willful insanity?
There’s just something irresistibly, illogically, mind-numbingly compelling to see the beauty and miracle of a baby. Even crusty adults, jaded and hardened by the world, lose themselves when a baby gazes at them with wonder-wide eyes. Tank-tough drill sergeants and calloused CEO’s will both do ridiculous things to make that baby smile. And when that tiny scrap of humanity cackles with delight, so will they.
Humans (as well as every particle of creation) are simply irresistibly, illogically, mind-numbingly beautiful. We start out as vulnerability, openness, wonder, and hopefulness, all dressed up in a diaper. Who knows? Maybe the child is a reflection of the face of God. The poop and the pee are prices we pay for the divine wonder we witness.
It’s only when we keep the beauty of creation before us that we can accept diapers as a small price to pay. Diapers are like clouds that pass on a starry night, so we can appreciate the limitless universe around and within us.
Every human should have a mandate to reclaim those adorable, beautiful qualities with which they’re born. Just because you mess up doesn’t mean you should lose sight of the divine-childish image in which you were created.
Another mandate is to look for such qualities in others, especially in a time when tweets and posts degrade and insult. If we could focus on people’s beauty and not their diapers, then this world would be a lot less violent and a lot more compassionate
Certainly that’s what God focuses on.
Wonderful illustration, Greg. It reflects Jesus’ own characterization of our relationship with Him as being born again. (John 3:3)