Utility doesn't quite fit the bill

I am guessing from this article that Simon Barnes is an atheist. He is writing about his son, Eddie, who has Down's Syndrome, and as you might expect from Simon Barnes he does so very movingly:

What is Eddie for? A question worth asking, I think. The Nazis sent people with Down’s to the ovens, because they polluted the purity of the race. And before we shudder at such barbarity, we should remember that most women pregnant with a baby with Down’s syndrome choose to abort. It’s clear that many people believe that a child with Down’s has no point: that such a being is extraneous to human needs, a mere burden on society and, in particular, on the parents. Best get rid of them. 

The reality of Eddie’s life contradicts all that. At school, he is held very dear. The headmistress has said that her school is a better place for his presence: because Eddie is there, the school’s small society has become more caring, more gentle, more at ease with itself. At the end of the last school year, Eddie won the Peace Prize, voted for annually by the entire class. The prize is given to the kindest, most generous and most helpful child.

So Simon Barnes takes on the utility argument and argues that his boy has utility, despite what others in society might say. Quite right too.

But Eddie is valuable and has purpose, not only because of his utility, but because God has made him in his image, because God sustains Eddie moment by moment and because God will hold to account anyone who takes Eddie's life.


Despite not having a grounding for why this should be, Simon Barnes is right that Eddie's purpose is to be loved and to love: 

Eddie’s function is to be loved, and to love in return. Perhaps that is everybody’s ultimate function. Eddie enriches the lives of his family and enriches the lives of those he comes into contact with outside. That seems to me to be a life right on the cutting edge of usefulness.

But there is more still. Because utility is not how God measures worth. After all, Eddie is not useful to God. Nor is Simon Barnes, nor am I, nor is anyone, in this sense: What do we bring God that God does not already have?

Ultimately Eddie, Simon and I, along with all creation, are made by the Triune God, for him, to worship and adore him for all eternity through the Lord Jesus Christ. Eddie is made for God's glory.