They looked at the infant in the mother's arms. She was so pretty, the infant, and happy, smiling joyously. Then the mother told them that the baby was 22 years old, a victim of a rare disease that absolutely stops development and growth in humans.
All they could think at first, was how many of life events the "child" had missed out on, how many things like driving a car, graduating high school, how many of those things the child would miss out on.
It seemed horrific, their thoughts, but still, there was that smile on the baby's face.
The baby was clearly happy, and well cared for.
So was this existence cause for joy or horror or frustration?
Indeed, it was a soul spared of our usual parrying and fretting over sin, a soul spared and cared for by parents who deeply loved the child. The child didn't know the feeling of graduating, but also didn't know the feeling of losing a first love. Spared at once, so many very adult indignities, spared the struggle against sin: in a sense, a perfect model of innocence, a 22 year old infant.
Indeed, that smile on the baby's face, begs us to be happy for the baby, who is a soul spared of so many opportunities to sin, and spared so many of the painful lessons of human life in this world.
Indeed, as the Bible says, have joy with those who have joy, and weep with those who weep.
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