I’m writing from Fate, Texas, a suburban community northeast of Dallas, where I’ve come to my son-in-law Forrest and daughter Lydia’s home, to meet my newest grandchild, Fiona, born just a couple of days ago. Holding a newborn baby never gets old. As I look into her eyes – which until birth weren’t used! – I marvel at the wonder of the creation of new life. Fiona is totally dependent on others right now, yet her existence exhibits God’s power. The psalmist affirmed this (Psalm 8.2), and Jesus quoted it to the learned of His day when children praised Him: “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?” (Mt 21.16) Truly, as Paul would later write to the Corinthian church, “God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1.27).

There is something transcendent about a newborn baby. The idea that the creation of a new human being through procreation is a process that just “happened” by chance over billions of years is revealed as inane when you witness the birth of a child. Only God can do this: As Psalm 14.1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” We marvel at technological advances – AI, or rockets taking people into space, but they all pale next to the creation of a newborn baby. That’s why we celebrate new life: “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him” (Psalm 127.3).

This month we’ll celebrate new life in another way: On April 20th, we’ll remember the seminal event in all human history – Jesus rising from the dead. The gift of physical life is the beginning of a journey – the end of which is death. But just as God provides the beginning of life, He also provides the solution to the inevitable end of life. As Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11.25-26). God gives each of us the gift of life; through the resurrection of Christ, He has given us the gift of eternal life. As we celebrate the resurrection this Easter, let’s celebrate the gift of eternal life.