Gil Benson was one of the most popular pediatricians in our small town, if not the most popular. He was constantly going between his home, his medical office and the delivery room, trying to keep up with all his patients: expectant mothers, newborns, or those in the process of giving birth. His years of doctoring had grayed his hair, but they did nothing to change his vibrant and enthusiastic way of living.

A quiet and distinguished man, Dr. Gil possessed a smile as massive as his hands, and he loved children so much that he and his wife Polly had four of their own and later adopted a fifth out of Central America, where he would often volunteer his time on medical missionary trips.

"Do you ever get tired of delivering babies?" I asked one evening over dinner in late December at their home. "Not at all," he replied. "What's it like seeing a baby being born?" I wondered out loud.

Dr. Gil looked up and out toward that place where one searches for the right words. "There's noting quite like it, really. It's hard to put into words. I've been delivering babies for twenty years and it still amazes me, witnessing a new life coming into the world." He paused as the emotion of his thoughts swept over him, eyes watering a bit, still looking straight ahead, but not at me.

"We doctors think we know so much, can do so much, but we really haven't got a clue as to the complexity of human life, or what makes a life human, for that matter. But our bodies have figured this out on their own, and have been doing it without our help for thousands and thousands of years. I'm only there to assist a very natural process, usually to relieve pain, or in case there's a problem.

"It's a very risky moment. A lot can go wrong during childbirth and put an infant's or mother's life at risk; that used to happen more than it does now, but it's still a risky moment, or can be. Life is very vulnerable at the moment of birth.

"It is also a holy moment, delivering a child. I find myself drawn strangely closer to God while attending a birth. This child is a new creation coming into the world, a new human life. Because God is a creator, I sense God's presence in this moment in a profound way. What a privilege to be the first human to welcome a new life and soul into this world. Twenty years later, it still overwhelms me."

We sat in silence for a few moments, me trying to absorb what Dr. Gil said; he, still deep in reflection on the matter. Molly and the kids were elsewhere in the house, which had been splendidly decorated for Christmas.

"When I think about the Incarnation," he continued, "It occurs to me what a tremendous risk God took. One can only imagine what conditions were like during childbirth in first century Judea. So much can go wrong, and so quickly, too; a woman or child could easily hemorrhage to death, not to mention the lack of sanitary conditions. Just surviving the birth itself was a minor miracle. And now you have an infant child. A newborn is completely helpless, and utterly dependent upon the care of its mother. What if the mother is incompetent or uncaring? No child gets to pick his parents-though I suppose in this case we could say that Jesus did." We both laughed at that comment.

"But think of it," he went on. "The survival of every newborn child absolutely depends on the love and care of its parents, or someone with the will to parent that child. Children did not always enjoy the status they enjoy today in our Western society. Children were often seen as property, and occasionally treated like it. Sometimes they still are.

"I think that God took a tremendous risk in the Incarnation, just making it through birth and childhood, for unless it was a real risk, it wouldn't be a real human life. If it's not a real human life, it's not a real incarnation. Humans live with real risks of life and limb, with real desires and real limitations, particularly mortality. God chose to accept all that.

"I think about that sometimes when I am holding a child that has just come forth from its mother's womb. Sometimes, I wonder what He looked like, what God become human looked like. When I contemplate the idea of God entering the world as a dependent, defenseless, newborn child, I often ask, 'What ever possessed you, God, to want to do this?'"

"What does God say when you ask that?" I asked him.

"Love. God says 'Love possesses me.' And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense; that really is the only reason the Incarnation makes sense to me. Only because of love would God do that, become one of us that we might fall in love with God.

"You see, it's hard not to fall in love with a baby; I have seen babies melt the most crusty, hard people you'd ever meet. They fuss over it, start up with the baby talk, and just glow in the presence of their child, or grandchild. Take the baby away, and - snap! - they go right back to being crusty and hard.

"But what people fail to remember is that all of us are somebody's baby. All of us are still a child of the God who became a child. This creating God who became a child of humanity, that humanity might become children of God. If we could begin to see that child of God in each other, in every human face, it would change the very way we live and love each other.

Dr. Gil looked down to think one last time. And when he looked up, he was looking right at me. "When you realize it, one can recognize the image of God in the face of a newborn child, and because of my line of work, it is my privilege to see that face of God nearly everyday. What people don't realize is that in every face we see each day, all of us actually have that opportunity, as well."

The Rev'd Timothy M. Dombek
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
301 Piney Mountain Road
Greenville, SC 29609-3035
(864) 244-6358
timothy@stjamesgreenville.org

Copyright © 2002 Timothy M. Dombek All Rights Reserved.