When All Infants Will Be Healthy
IT WOULD be a crime to drive a person from his tent and sleeping bag on a cold Arctic night, making him endure the elements in his skimpy underwear. Similarly, it is a crime that an infant is prematurely thrust from his warm, protective place in the womb before he is ready to face the outside world. But who or what is responsible for this heinous crime?
The parents surely would not intentionally work such a hardship on their young one. Actually, the mother is unable to stop her labor when it begins, whether it occurs at a baby’s full term or before. Even medical experts do not understand exactly what starts labor, whether prematurely or at full term. What is known, however, is that something goes terribly wrong on occasion, and a baby is thrust out into a world in which it is not equipped to live.
Why this occurs is explained in the Bible. The inspired psalmist wrote: “Look! With error I was brought forth with birth pains, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) A rebellious spirit creature induced the first human pair to rebel against God, and they thereby became sinners. They missed the mark of proper obedience to their Creator. Thus, all their offspring were conceived in sin, or imperfection. (Romans 5:12) The consequences are sickness and death, as well as various malfunctions of the body, including a reproductive system that sometimes thrusts its precious fruitage out prematurely.
A World Without Preemies
If humans had maintained their perfection, no infants would have been born before their time to face the calamities that confront so many preemies today. And the time will soon come when a mother never again will give birth prematurely. The inspired prophet Isaiah wrote about that time, providing us the promise of our loving Creator: “I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men’s minds.”—Isaiah 65:17, The Jerusalem Bible.
The Bible prophecy in Isaiah goes on to tell of the heartwarming conditions that will prevail in God’s new world, saying: “No more will the sound of weeping or the sound of cries be heard in her; in her, no more will be found the infant living a few days only . . . They will not toil in vain or beget children to their own ruin, for they will be a race blessed by Yahweh, and their children with them.”—Isaiah 65:19-24, JB.
How grand that will be when all human suffering and distress will be a distant memory, when there will never again be the need for extreme medical measures and intensive care units to try to keep alive infants born prematurely! Because human imperfection will then be eliminated by means of the grand ransom provision of our great God, never again will an infant be thrust from the womb before it is perfectly equipped to enjoy life to its fullest.—Revelation 21:3, 4.
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You Can Realize True Comfort
◆ If your child dies, try to accept help and encouragement from friends and relatives. Perhaps those who have lost children can help comfort you.
◆ You may believe in the hope of the resurrection, but do not be alarmed if that belief does not bring you immediate comfort. As time begins to heal those wounds, you will, no doubt, come to appreciate the hope of seeing your loved one again.—Isaiah 25:8; 65:23; John 5:28, 29; 1 Corinthians 15:25, 26.
◆ Try to rely on Jehovah, “the God of all comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3) He is the One who has provided a way to “bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil.”—Hebrews 2:14.
◆ If you are a friend of the grieving parents, it might be best not to say that they can have another child. At the moment, nothing could replace that baby. It would be best in this case to “weep with people who weep.” (Romans 12:15) Your acknowledging the parents’ loss and grieving with them can bring comfort to them, as sharing grief can lessen it.
◆ It is proper and helpful to express grief, so give yourself time to resolve feelings of grief and loss. (See “Awake!” of April 22, 1985, “When Someone You Love Dies,” and of August 8, 1987, “Facing the Loss of a Child.”)