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{"id":15631,"date":"2015-02-06T10:32:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/?p=15631"},"modified":"2015-02-06T10:32:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T15:32:49","slug":"over-and-over-again-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/2015\/02\/06\/over-and-over-again-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Over and over again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"seedling\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to look at sheer numbers, it\u2019s hard to imagine anything less miraculous, or more ordinary and natural than the conception of a child.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that\u2019s happened billions of times, often without anyone meaning or wanting it to happen \u2014 often without anyone evenrealizing<\/em>\u00a0that it\u2019s happened.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen pro-choice people roll their eyes and patiently explain, \u201cYes, babies are cute, but they\u2019re hardly a miracle, any more than it\u2019s a miracle every time a weed grows.\u00a0 It\u2019s simple biology; happens all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which always makes me think, \u201cYes?\u00a0 Is it somehow\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0amazing when a weed grows?\u201d\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just because I\u2019m such a terrible gardener, but every time I put a seed in the ground, sweat and fret for those ten days of germination, give up hope, keep watering anyway, and then go out one evening to discover that SOMETHING IS COMING UP, it blows my mind.\u00a0 Absolutely blows my mind.\u00a0 I drag my husband out to see:\u00a0 \u201cLook!\u00a0 Do you see, right there?\u00a0 You can even see where the soil is actually being pushed away, because the little leaves are coming up!\u00a0 Look how hard it\u2019s trying!\u00a0 I know I planted a seed there, but HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?\u00a0 You can even see the little bean shell stuck to it!\u00a0 LOOK!\u201d<\/p>\n

I get nearly the same thrill when I weed, to be honest.\u00a0 Yesterday there was nothing but bare dirt surrounding my tomato plant; today, there are six kinds of green all fighting their way through out of nothingness into the light, all hungry, thirsty, ready to join the battle with beetles and downpours and sun and chill.\u00a0 Some of them are feathery, some fibrous, some creep and cling to the ground with flat, sticky leaves, some are just simple, forthright grass . . . and everybody wants a piece of life.\u00a0 I don\u2019t shed any tears when I rip them out and toss them away, but I really do admire them.\u00a0 Or at least, I admire the system.\u00a0 Yesterday, there was something very close to nothing, and today, there\u2019s something big enough to grab with my whole hand.\u00a0 Tomorrow, if I leave it be, there will be something with a stem thick enough to snap, full of juice and intricate hairs.\u00a0 Everything is ordered toward life, toward making more and more and more of itself, to being part of the plan.<\/p>\n

And it happens over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re talking about grass and weeds or even exquisite hot house flowers, only truly crazy people worry or marvel over every last bit of plant life:\u00a0 it\u2019s not merely common, it\u2019s insignificant.\u00a0 And, while we certainly cherish and delight in our own babies and the babies of people we love, no human heart is big enough to cherish and delight in the individual births of all the billions of babies conceived. There are just too many of them.\u00a0 It\u2019s just too common.\u00a0 It happens literally all the time, every second of every day.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing:\u00a0 it\u2019s just that very commonness, that everyday-ness of human life that is a gift in itself.<\/p>\n

Think of other things that repeat and repeat.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not the first one to point out that repetition is sometimes a gift in itself<\/a>, and not a stumbling block to overcome.\u00a0 Do you get tired of hearing your spouse say, \u201cI love you?\u201d\u00a0 Do you look at those beloved lips forming those words and think, \u201cOh,\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0old thing again.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t I have something new for a change?\u201d\u00a0 Would you want to have a marriage where the words \u201cI love you\u201d were an extraordinary, unexpected event, only brought about by special grace?\u00a0 No, it\u2019s the very repetition that makes it cherished, delightful \u2014 extraordinary, even, just because it is so ordinary.<\/p>\n

So, when a baby is conceived, maybe it\u2019s not a miracle \u2014 maybe it\u2019s something better than that.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sign that God has given us a world which, even in its natural, fallen state, is completely stuffed with wonders.\u00a0 He is not stingy; He doesn\u2019t withhold his goodness.\u00a0 This is the kind of marriage that mankind has with God:\u00a0 He says \u201cI love you\u201d every day, every minute of every day.<\/p>\n

My cup overflows.<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>***
\nThis post originally ran at the National Catholic Register in 2012.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

image via Bing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"