Image: The Timleck family, one of four winners of the Great Stork Derby.
One of the craziest contests in history was the one Canadian journalists dubbed “The Great Stork Derby.” In 1926, wealthy Toronto lawyer, businessman, and practical joker, Charles Vance Millar died, leaving behind a will that included several practical jokes. “Millar started off by giving shares in a jockey club to gambling opponents and shares in a brewery to teetotalling religious leaders. Then he left his house in Jamaica to three men who hated one another, on the condition that they own it together.”[1]
But the most outrageous clause of the will is credited with setting off a mini-baby boom in Toronto, Canada. Millar instructed that because he had no heirs, and because he had amassed a fortune greater than a childless man could spend, he would leave the money “to the mother who has in the ten years since my death given birth in Toronto to the greatest number of children as shown by the Registrations under the Vital Statistics Act.”
Soon reporters heard about the will and the “Great Stork Derby” was on. Women all over Toronto seemed to be having babies, and as the decade neared its end, some eleven women emerged as front runners.
But there was litigation. The court had to first determine whether the will was enforceable. It was.
Then the judge had to decide whether to count babies born out of wedlock. He eventually said no. Mom better be married.
Then came the thorny question of stillborn children, leading to significant courtroom testimony. In one case, a mother of some 13 living children (several born too early to take part in the contest) was asked to testify about her stillborn babies. That was difficult for her, in spite of her many living children. After she was allowed to step down from the witness stand, the physician who delivered the still births was cross-examined: Did the child breathe at any time? Could you detect a heartbeat? What color was the child’s skin at birth? Was there any indication of life? Could you determine at what point the fetus may have died?
This testimony was too much for the mother and she burst from the courtroom weeping.
In the end, the court ruled against illegitimate births and still births, and the prize was divided among four women, each having birthed nine living children within the bounds of matrimony during the ten years in question.
In reading these stories, I was struck by the the mother who ran from the courtroom. Though she had 13 kids, it hurt her to think of those she lost.
That is a private hurt that few but the grieving parents will know. Mom and Dad remember the months of pregnancy and preparation for a baby that never came. Women carrying that pain are everywhere. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one in four pregnancies ends before week 20 and is termed a miscarriage (1 in 4!). A smaller, but not insignificant group of pregnancies is lost after week 20, and are termed stillbirths. A huge number of women have experienced one or the other, or both, and carry inside this gnawing ache that will not go away.
The Bible speaks to this egregious loss:
“Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child. Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed. For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman, says the Lord … Fear not, for you will not be put to shame. And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced. But you will forget the shame of your youth … For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the Lord of hosts. And your Redeemer is the holy one of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth” Isaiah 54:1,4-5.
In heaven, the sons of the desolate will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman. Why? Because your husband is your Maker, and God is your Redeemer. He will make a way where there seems to be no way.
These promises are not merely for the woman who is married and barren, but also for the woman who is unmarried—and for single men as well, and men who can never be fathers, whatever the reason:
“Let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the Lord, ‘To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, and choose what pleases me, and hold fast my covenant, to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial, and a name BETTER than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off” Isaiah 56:3-5.
God will bless the barren woman and the unmarried man and woman. In heaven there will be no shame, no childlessness, no gnawing ache that will not go away. God will give the childless more sons, a husband who is our Maker, and an everlasting name greater than the legacy of sons and daughters.
Finally, God reminds us that it is okay to begin with nothing. Have you lost everything? Career? Money? Possessions? Loved ones? Whether you are childless, jobless, homeless, barren, or simply single, God will provide:
“Look unto Abraham your father … for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him” Isaiah 51:2. Abraham began with nothing. Even at his death, he saw little evidence his descendants would ever outnumber the stars. But God comforted Abraham and Sarah (with a child named “laughter”) and God can comfort you and me.
“For the Lord shall comfort Zion … He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody” Isaiah 51:3.
Have you been redeemed by the Lord? If so, then everlasting joy shall be upon your head … “I, even I, am he that comforts you” Isaiah 51:11-12.
Dear God, we bring you our hurts, our griefs, our losses, our lifelong disappointments that will never be resolved on earth. Thank you for being our REDEEMER. Thank you for loving the barren, the broken, the single, the lonely. Bless us and remind us that you have rewards stored up for us that are so great we cannot conceive of them. Thank you for being a good, good Father.
AΩ
[1] I have recently read a number of stories about the Great Stork Race and may cite facts from each of them. But I am quoting from this one: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-a-dead-millionaire-convinced-dozens-of-women-to-have-as-many-babies-as-possible/
Household Words: 