One of the Super Bowl commercials and the reaction is the stimulus for this week’s Sabbath Thought.
The ad was promoting Doritos. “The ad portrays a lively unborn baby on an ultrasound screen reacting with enthusiasm to the Dorito-munching expectant Dad’s packet of snacks. Each time the husband moves a chip towards his wife’s belly and the baby on the screen makes a lunge for it. When the annoyed Mom throws a chip across the room the baby, to everyone’s consternation, decides to make an early arrival” (CNS News—http://cnsnews.com, 2/8/2016).
NARAL Pro-Choice America responded to the ad with the following Tweet, #NotBuyingit-that@Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses . . . .” Only in 21st century America could we have someone outraged by “humanizing” a fetus. Honestly, what other way should we look at a baby in the womb? It is a potential human being with fingers, toes, hands, and all of the other important parts that make up a baby. Amazingly, the baby moves and every time it moves a mother knows she has a living being in her womb.
We might ask, “Does God like babies?” Consider Genesis 1: 27-28, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Amazing, God instructed mankind to be fruitful and multiply. In fact, God’s directive was to “fill the earth.” We can clearly see that from the beginning of human existence, God wanted many children to be born.
As one considers the Bible as a whole, in what chapter and verse do we find any parents who don’t want children? Abraham and Sarah were desperate to have a child. In fact, they believed God would give them a child, but they didn’t know the exact timing. So they took matters into their own hands and Ishmael was born. Ishmael was not the promised child. The couple was most joyful when the son of promise, Isaac, arrived.
In 1 Samuel 1, we learn of Elkanah who had two wives. One wife had children, but the other wife, Hannah, had no children. We learn that God has closed Hannah’s womb. The outcome of this situation, “And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat” (1 Samuel 1:6-7). Ultimately, Hannah went up to Shiloh and petitioned God to give her a child. God heard her prayer and blessed her with a son, Samuel.
From Genesis to Revelation, we find women having children and we never find them bemoaning their pregnancies and births. In fact, the Bible takes a most positive view of children, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate (Psalms 127:3-5).
The ad was meant to be funny, but sadly there is a significant element of American society which fails to see the humor. More importantly, they refuse to accept the fact that a baby in the womb is not just a glob of unfeeling tissue. A fetus is a living being awaiting the time when it will burst forth into this world hopefully into the waiting arms of proud parents.
All we can do at this time is enjoy our children and grandchildren realizing that each one of them is a potential son of God. We look forward to that time when all mankind will come to understand the incredible human potential of each child.
Have a pleasant Sabbath,
Gary Smith
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