How sad I was to read the story of Indi Gregory, a baby in England born with serious heart and brain issues. Right up until her birth, the doctors were pressuring the parents to abort the child, but they didn’t.  

Indi was placed on a life-support system in a government-run hospital. As the parents battled with the British government to keep the child alive, a Vatican children’s hospital offered to treat her free of charge. The parents pleaded with the National Health Association to allow them to take the baby to Rome, but they were turned down. On Nov. 13, the eight-month-old baby was sacrificed to the dark decree of the government.  

It’s a tragedy beyond belief when parents lose a baby, but these parents have the extra burden of knowing the government refused to give her a chance. Her life was deemed disposable, and that was it. It is beyond belief that anything good could come of this situation, yet God has a way of turning things around.  

Dean Gregory, the baby’s father, was an atheist, but after dealing with the horrific demands and inhuman decrees of the government, he started believing in something. Oddly enough, it wasn’t belief in God and heaven, but rather Satan and hell.  

“I am not religious and I am not baptized,” Gregory told an Italian newspaper. “But when I was in court I felt like I had been dragged to hell. I thought that if hell exists, then heaven must also exist.”  

We don’t hear much about Satan and hell these days, which surely makes the devil dance for joy. As Baudelaire said, “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Still, this father had a personal encounter with evil: “It was as if the devil was there.” The father then made an intriguing logical jump: “I thought that if the devil exists, then God must exist.” 

A Christian volunteer visited the baby and the parents every day in the hospital, and told them about baptism. As the father accepted the existence of God, he had the baby baptized before she died. Even more remarkably perhaps, after her death, he also was baptized. This baby, then, who lived such a short time, helped bring her father to Christ.   

It would be easy to say this is the end of the story, but I think there are chapters to come. The story of this baby’s death has swept through the world. Surely, it wouldn’t be presumptuous to say that one other atheist was struck by the father’s argument and also became a believer. In truth, I believe the number of conversions could be in the hundreds, but even if the baby saved only one other soul, then in her short life, she was a witness to Christ.  

In truth, babies constantly work miracles that are rarely written about. Many parents gazing into the eyes of a newborn, see God there. Many women during pregnancy realize they are witnessing God at work in their lives. We talk about the “miracle of birth,” but sometimes we forget that it truly is a miracle.  

During Advent, we reflect on the birth of a baby who changed the universe forever. This baby split time in half, since B.C. and A.D. mark the boundaries of his time on earth. This child inspired the greatest cathedrals, the most exquisite music, glorious paintings and sculpture and poetry. He inspired those who built hospitals, orphanages and shelters for the poor. He opened the gates to Heaven, where countless numbers of people have been received.  

This child’s life could have been snuffed out by the evil machinations of the government, namely King Herod. Instead, the child grew into a man who cherished children and said the way to heaven is found by imitating their trust and humility. How perfect that the Italian hospital, Bambino Gesu, was named in honor of this child.