Welcome to the world! Oliver* was overdue and long-awaited. He even received an eviction notice from his parents. But he’s here now and settling nicely into his new accommodations – so many loving arms.

The truth is that he’s captivating – in all his squished up baby-ness, with his unfocused eyes and ruddy complexion. It’s possible to actually sense that sweet, intoxicating smell of baby even through the photos on Facebook. There’s something about babies that compels us. They draw us in. They seduce us with their helplessness and their vulnerability.

Carl Sandburg said, “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” Indeed, a baby is a miracle of the present and a gift of the future. We wish on them. Babies make us think of all that they can be, and all their parents can be, and in fact, all that we can be. Suddenly, there are new roles for everyone. New parents or parents of a now-even-bigger-family. New grandparents or grandparents-of-a-growing-family. New roles for aunts and uncles and cousins, new roles for friends, new roles for neighbors – to care for, to nurture.

Families gather around. There is a collective sigh for the awesomeness of new life. For this new life.

I remember when we brought each of our children home. For each of them, we were overwhelmed – with joy, with awe – and with fear, truth be told. How were we worthy to care for each of the little humans we held in our arms? How was it possible they’d been entrusted to us? In every ordinary moment of caring for these new creatures, we were aware of how extraordinary the responsibilities were, and would continue to be. A new life is a most precious treasure, and every moment – especially those where we felt clueless and over our heads – was overflowing with the hugeness of that realization.

Babies give us timelessness. We remember our past. We ponder their future. We pause in the present to cherish and consider.

Babies are about their own future and potential, but they are also about the potential of each of us. Who will Oliver become? What will his life hold? What will the world be for him? And what’s our potential to make it a welcoming place? Babies remind us all that the world should go on – will go on. They are bundles of pure potential. As are we all.

*A pseudonym. (And thanks to my own children for loaning their images for this post.)