The Blessing Of Children

When the Lord God brought Eve to Adam He commanded the two of them to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth . . ." (Gen.1:28). This was no mere command. It was a delightful blessing, for He was inviting them to share in the wonder of creating a new human person. 


Recently my wife and I welcomed our first great-grandson into our four generational family. His name is Byron and he is indeed a real, honest to goodness wonder. Not only are his parents filled with pride and joy, all of us in Byron's family dote over him—especially Byron's grandparents. He is the newest member of our family. He is Byron! Once again we have all witnessed our Lord's awesome blessings. Byron's parents were privileged to participate in the Lord's creation of yet another human. Here's a recent photo.

 Byron

Together we acknowledge this truth of Holy Scripture:

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. 

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:3-5)

The Creator has revealed His blessings upon His creation by creating a new child. Byron's parents have been privileged to participate in that creative work. The very mystery of their union has been revealed in Byron's birth. Their union is not only for themselves. Together they now have a new work, the task of raising Byron to become a mature and responsible member of the larger human family. And they are joyfully about that work as they feed, bathe, clothe and protect him. 

One of the first things Byron's parents also did was to bring him to the waters of Holy Baptism. In Christ's name I was privileged to speak His Word as I poured water over Byron's head. In that simple act Jesus took Byron with Him into death and out of death into life. In that One Baptism, Jesus' own Baptism, Byron was joined to Jesus for all eternity (Romans 6:3-11). Now all of us gladly join his parents to raise him up to know and love the Lord Jesus who has already given him new life and made him a member of the Father's eternal family. 

My heart goes out to the couples who are not privileged to share in this wonder. They have a sadness and pain that will not go away. When they married they expected to give birth, but discovered that this was not to be. My wife knows about this in great detail since she spent her life as a social worker specializing in adoptions. She also knows the great joy such couples have as they welcome an orphaned child into their home. 

Both my wife and I have great admiration for couples who adopt or become foster parents. The self-giving love of such couples is almost impossible to describe with words. Again and again we have also watched couples become parents of children with multiple physical, mental and emotional problems and do this work with great joy. I stand in awe of them and the love they demonstrate with their lives. Their love is a paradigm of selfless love for us all to follow. 

Having said that, I mean not to suggest that adoption is a must for every childless couple. They may indeed find other ways to share their lives in service to others. Never should anyone suggest that their marriage is incomplete. To say that would be to take back everything the Bible says about their one-flesh union. Marriage is never to be seen merely as a means of reproducing babies. For such couples there are other creative and fruitful ways to share their lives. 

All this brings up the question of contraception. I'll look at that issue in more detail in my next post.