Several years ago one of the African refugee families that we were helping had a daughter, and they named her Deborah after my wife. At that time one of our Bahá’í friends told us about this story from Star of the West, June 1932: “There was glad rejoicing when Baha’u’llah from ’Akka sent these parents a Tablet (a letter) about this new babe … Baha’u’llah wrote:
O Vargha! It is for thee to chant in both ears of this little one three times: Verily, thou hast come by the Command of God! Thou hast appeared to speak of Him, and thou hast been created to serve Him Who is the Dear, the Beloved! “
I found this touching, because it affirms that each person coming into this world is welcome and has a purpose, no matter how much we worry about the state of the world they’re entering right now. I remembered this when watching a talk by Hooper Dunbar on YouTube (unfortunately I can’t remember which one) where he discusses suicide, and made a point that stuck with me — some people might think suicide is OK because they should be able to make their own decisions about their own life, but that this is not true — that we can choose what we do in this life, but we are not to choose when we leave any more than when we enter. Taking a life is wrong, no matter whose life it is. He compared normal death to arriving at a banquet in the next world, whereas a suicide arrives at the banquet but there is no place ready for them yet, because they arrived at the wrong time. But there is the same theme of being welcomed in both transitions from one world to the next, and I like that. (disclaimers: unauthoritative, old translation [but I like it], etc.)