As often will happen, we fell short of fulfilling our responsibilities this past Sunday. Our worship service was attended by several babies because of a failure to get nursery workers. God, however, as is so regularly the case with our great God, redeemed the human failure and made it beautiful. Every time I looked up from the pulpit, I saw a smiling child. No unwelcome noises, no boisterous cries—I saw only smiling, adorable faces.

In this bouquet of beautiful baby faces, there sat a single rose whose countenance shone brighter than all the rest. Perhaps it was her pretty little dress, or the way her hair was combed and neatly clipped. Whatever it was, it was glorious to see how God blessed so many adults through the appearance of Emily Rose in our Sunday Service. No less than six adults approached me afterward to tell of how blessed they were to be in the presence of her beauty. She met every adult face with a beaming and radiant smile.

What a precious Rose in God’s bouquet of babies is Emily! You see, Emily is the kind of child the world has taught us most to fear. Emily Rose is a Down ’s syndrome child. Down syndrome babies are becoming quite rare in our culture—not because technology has advanced a cure for the genetic disorder. No, Down syndrome babies are rare because of abortion. George Will—the well-known columnist and father of a Down’s child—has reported that 80% of Down’s children are aborted thanks, in large part, to Amniocentesis, the testing of pregnant women to “warn” them of this possible defect in their child.