The Face of A Newborn Baby

Nothing is quite as compelling as the face of a newborn, especially that of little Madeline. All are attracted to gaze into that face. There seems to be something in their eyes that speaks wordlessly to our hearts telling us these little ones know something we have forgotten. At the birth of each of our children I have felt that same wonder. When our oldest was born, fathers were not allowed in the delivery room so when they wheeled my sweetheart wife and baby into the hallway where I was waiting. I saw for the first time our precious daughter, her eyes meeting mine in equal wonder somehow she communicated to me something akin to “I remember you." Yet there was more, something that told me she still had memories of where she had just been.

I am reminded of the musings of M. Russell Ballard when on occasion of the birth of his children he asks, “Where did you come from little one? Did you just happen, or are you part of something larger— something grand and eternal? What do you know? What could you tell me if only you had the capacity? And what promise does life have in store for you?”1

Nothing in this world is quite as poignant as the face of a baby. When we think of the dependence of these little ones, it is humbling to look into their innocent, precious eyes. Such inspires poets to write their most insightful work:


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.2

1. Our Search For Happiness, M. Russell Ballard, P. 67

2. “Ode On Intimations of Immortality" William Wordsworth