A Child That is Yours and Yet is Mysteriously a Stranger

There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger. You are the gate through which it came into the world, and you will be allowed to have charge of it for a period; after that it will leave you and blossom out into its own free life, and there it is, for you to watch, living its life in freedom. It is like a strange plant which you have brought home, planted, and can hardly wait to see how it will turn out.

Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

Someone asked me recently how it felt to cooperate with God to create your child. I never thought of it like that at the time because I wasn't Catholic or even Christian. 

We have two wonderful daughters and I love seeing the way they have blossomed out into their own lives. I watch our little grandson with the same interested anticipation that I had with our girls. We are often complimented and given much credit for how they have turned out. I hardly ever know how to take that because I feel it is more a matter of simply nurturing what was there already.

As always, my favorite Agatha Christie said it perfectly in her extremely readable autobiography quoted above.