"so the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. now remain in my love." 
Author ND Wilson wrote:"You have been given your body. You have been given your ancestors, your natural strengths, and your natural weaknesses. The backstory is all in place. You have been drawn, described and placed on a stage unlike any other - the Globe."
I love people.People are incredible, even the crazy ones.I love old people, and new people.I love stories about people,I love people related to me by blood,I love people who died long before I was ever born.I love that this world is filled with people.I love babies.And grandmas.I love my friends having babies and making their mothers grandmas.
Today I'm baby-sitting my friend Heather's little girls while she has her fifth person.I live with one of my best friends Becca and she's all round and pregnant with her first person.Highschool bud Elizabeth is gorgeously and happily carrying her first little person in her belly.
Loving people is strange.You live and love and lose and live.You love your wife-person for a lifetime, and eventually she dies.Or you love your best friend with all your heart and somehow they aren't in your life anymore.You love a little person that doesn't exist yet, and it's heart-breaking to wonder "Will I ever have a baby person?"Angry kid persons push away broken parent persons.And yet you can't help but love.
Selah, the five year old I'm watching today, was on a walk with me and her not-quite-two-year-old sister, Addie.Addie's chubby cheeks jiggle when she "runs."I was loving it. Couldn't stop commenting on it.It was seriously so cute.Selah piped up "Oh Miss Kristen!Just like it's soOoo cute when YOUR cheeks jiggle when YOU walk!"
My mom texted me the other day after church. She had a story about my little sister:"I asked Shannon what she learned in church today. She said 'pride and humidity.'"
"You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones.
You have granted me life and love."job 10:12
People aren't bodies. People are wrapped in bodies.They are held together by bodies.A person is more then a body.I love knowing people.I love learning and hurting and dreaming and being with people.
Lydia made a joke about extinct bluebirds from Whales. It made me laugh.My brother filled me in on fantasy football. It made me smile.Caleb discovered ghosts. It made me giddy giggle.My dad came up with baby names for me and my future children. It made me burst.Jamie laughed at something I said. It made grin.My mom called to say hi while she was driving and just wanted to talk. It made me happy.It's so easy to love at those times.
But I don't love those times, I love those people.I love times with those people.I know life will bring about times with other people;other new people and other old people.Hopefully I will have many more years of loving and living.But when times hurt and are hard and I'm mad,I still love the people, not the times.
Babies have a particular way of revealing the brevity of time.Babies are people.Most of us are adult people, we will always be adult people. We will never go back to being baby people.We may go back to being as needy as a baby person,but never a tiny, fresh, unknown baby person.
Newborn babies have no stories, yet.They are on page one."Once upon a time..."Their cue to enter the stage just has started.Who will they be? Who will they love?Who will they hurt? What flavor ice cream will they like most?Will they be allergic to ice cream?How will they be strong? And how will they be weak?I love baby people.
The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."
jeremiah 1:4-5
Go love on some people while you live today.Remain in love. Remain in HIS love.Play your part on this stage.Sing or dance or change the set or direct or pull the curtain.And love being loved and love loving and just...love.
(and if there is any way you can snuggle a baby, go for it.)
