Excerpt from 1 John 1:1-4 

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our own hands, concerning the word of life… that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

When I arrived home after the birth of our daughter, Alanna, 27 years ago, I opened a bottle of champagne, lit an enormous cigar and called everyone I knew.  I used the same words in each conversation until it became a kind of litany:  "Karen and the baby are fine.  We named her Alanna.  It's a Gaelic term of endearment.  It means, 'Beloved.'  She was born at 2:30.  She weighs eight pounds, two ounces.  She has the most beautiful long eyelashes."

Here is what I wrote the next day about the same experience:  "What swept over me was an almost palpable sense of time.  We speak of there being three dimensions of space, and that time is the fourth dimension.  But, in a way, I think time has dimensions of its own.  Time, too, can have a height and a depth.  And then there are rare and precious moments that are so full, so laden with meaning, that the moment seems to plumb eternity.  Such was the time in the delivery room."

"Such moments are rare, indeed, and necessarily so, for if we lived every moment as if each moment were filled with eternity in miniature, our human hearts and minds would be overwhelmed.  But the light of such times does shed truth on the more routine times in our lives.  The nearness, power, and mystery of God, so evident in such moments, does not disappear, but remains a soft glow on the rest of time.  Eternity lodged in the moment.  The power of God held so close in my arms in the form of this tiny baby.  Such an experience is not forgotten, or simply remembered.  Rather, it is one moment’s gift to the rest of my days."

When I was calling to tell people about Alanna's birth, still swimming in the depths of the mystery, I did not even hint at the larger dimensions of what that experience was for me.  Sometimes it is only after time has elapsed that you can offer your testimony.  And so I offer mine 27 years later.  Happy birthday, Alanna.

Prayer

"Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices, who, from our mother's arms, has blessed us on our way, with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today."

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

The Daily Devotional is now on Facebook. Become a fan!

Sign up to receive Daily Devotionals

More items written by the Stillspeaking Writers' Group