Our Children, With All The Joy & The Heartaches, Are Blessings From God
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.’ (Psalm 139:13)
In looking back (something I don’t do often as I try to focus more on the present), I think of the birth of our son, while I was in the Army, only months away from the end of my enlistment. It was both exciting and scary, but seeing him born – and after counting ten fingers and ten toes – the anticipation turned to joy, then thinking what a responsibility I would now have. Six years later, our daughter was born, and with her we were more established and secure, but still it was exciting and – after counting her ten fingers and ten toes – the anticipation turned to joy, then to the responsibility I would now have with her.
As with many parents and children, we have good memories, and of course some recalling the more trying times of the parent-child relationship between the two of them. Then one day they finished high school, and they in their own unique paths entered adulthood. Today they are in their thirties, our son now married with four children and working as a store manager, and our daughter, still single but in a committed relationship, working as a nurse. Both live ‘up north’, out of Florida. We do see them at least once if not twice a year, and it is the grandchildren our son has provided that are now changing quickly before our eyes as the ‘kids’ are now stable adults doing the adult routine my wife and I did when we were their age (and having those same responsibilities back then).
Though it was a different time, with different customs, the raising of children and seeing them grow into adulthood was likely similar in the Old Testament days. In 1 Chronicles 14, we read of David having 13 of his children (with many before this) in his reign as Israel’s king while residing in the ‘City of David’ in Jerusalem. Having so many children, he may or not have the same level of anticipation and joy that I had, and perhaps he interacted more with his sons than he did with his daughters (as they were all possible heirs to the throne). I’m certain, though, that he likely saw his children growing before him, then perhaps feeling a little ‘old’ seeing them turn into adults and leave the nest (though most of his children didn’t go far).
David also had those trying times of parent-child relationships as well, with Absalom and his hatred of his brother Amnon (due to Amnon’s disgracing of his half-sister/Absalom’s full sister Tamar), and later his murdering Amnon to exact revenge. David had these parental relationships with his children, and the memories of the good times together as well as those trying times that all parents have. But these memories come from the blessing of having children.
We all want, or should want, the best for our child. God wants us to do right with our child as he did with the nation of Israel and with those of us who are children of God. We all should love our neighbors, but it is our children who we hold dearly to. Our neighbors may do wrong, and while we disapprove it doesn’t hold the same weight as seeing our children struggle.
The love for our children often pains us as we see them fail, and decide not to intervene, so they learn from their mistakes – as much as we yearn to have them jump back into our arms and take care of them. It is also a blessing to share in the joys they have, especially the joys of them having those grandchildren, and sharing in the heartbreak of seeing those grandchildren fall and get hurt, and seeing the same pain in our son’s eyes that we had in ours when he or his sister made similar errors.
God, though Jesus, also experienced those joys and heartbreaks. He also knows before we do what our children will do, how they will grow up, and how they’ll turn out. There are several verses on the birth of a child to choose but none more so than Jeremiah 1:5a (<God said,> ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…’). One such verse is today’s foundational verse, Psalm 139:13, which clearly states God Himself not only creates you physically, but also constructs your mind and soul – your personality.
Regardless of who the parents are, whether the act of conception was one of love or lust, whether the act was consensual or forced, the creation of a child from a zygote to fetus to infant has God’s hands involved throughout the entire process. The Lord allows the procreation of humans to provide a base of worshippers to Him, but He also provides us with the freedom to choose whether we want to worship and follow Him, or not. Being a human at conception, it is for the infant to be allowed to be birthed and grow up to be given the choice to choose the Lord.
No one asks to be born or not to be born, or to choose parents; it is not a right or a choice to be created or by who. However, it is a right once created to be brought forward as God desires, the right to life – the 1st right. The issue with abortion is of course the freedom to choose for the parents was back just prior to the act of conception. After that point, it is no longer a choice of a personal action, but a decision to violate someone else’s right to a life that has been created by God. Whether that life created is terminated in the womb, or at the final chapter of life through euthanasia in an assisted living facility, or anywhere in between is irrelevant; a premeditated termination of life is murder.
I don’t condone today’s societal proclivity to having children out of wedlock, as it is not proper to God’s plan. But I don’t condemn them though I disapprove. It has happened in our family. In seeing my first grandson and my first granddaughter growing up, I am thankful that they are here with us, a gift from God and regardless of what occurred as a sin, the Lord has turned it into a blessing, and I accept them and love them as a ‘Pappy’ should do. I pray that others will learn that what is created is a blessing to be cherish as a gift from God, not a curse to be tossed away.
