Butterflies, Rainbows, Ballet Slippers & Innocence

A lady that I work with had a baby girl in March. Early this week she sent a box full of clothes that her little one barely wore, but has already outgrown. As Traci & I sorted through them, I was amazed at just how tiny they were. It's sometimes difficult for me to fathom that a person, a real live person, could ever be that small. And if the whole baby's that small, think about how little her stomach is or her heart or her lungs. If I think about it too much, it really becomes more than I'm capable of taking in.

It's not only her physical size that I'm struck by as I study the miniature couture, bejeweld with butterflies, rainbows, & ballet slippers. It's the innocence that really strikes me, the innocence that comes with being a newborn & weighing little more than a bag or two of sugar. How could anything that small be anything less than perfect. I can't imagine any parent every thinking otherwise. At some point though, we all fall from that perfection, that innocence. We're tainted by our environment and our own thoughts and actions as we develop and grow. I wonder though, does a parent see the innocence of their child go or does it just slip away. Can a parent ever pinpoint that moment when the innocence is gone? Can a parent do things to perserve that innocence or make it last longer? For now, I look forward to enjoying the innocence of a beautiful newborn for as long as it might last.

These are the things that I think about when I look at those tiny clothes ... butterflies, rainbows, ballet slippers & innocence.