Psalm 127:3–5 (NKJV)
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. 5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, a day fitting for us to meditate on the gift of life. As men and women made in the image of God, we rejoice in the gift of life and are reminded by the psalmist that the arrival of another child is a reward from God.
But our culture is askew. Rather than view the arrival of another child as a blessing, a gift from God, we frequently view children as a burden, a weight, a shackle. The fruit of the womb is not a blessing but a curse. We have become so consumed with our love of convenience and pleasure and ease that we have come to hate children. We have come to embrace fruitlessness and to reject fruitfulness.
This embrace of fruitlessness is manifest in many of the policies of our current president. He has openly sanctioned the abomination of abortion, has refused to reissue a proclamation for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, has instead used the month of January to advocate his contraceptive mandate, and has officially declared June to be gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered month. And what are all these things but an embrace of fruitlessness and death?
As we consider this national sin, we need to beware lest we as individual believers in Christ give way to the spirit of the age and subtly embrace this love of fruitlessness ourselves. Children are a heritage from the Lord – and we need to receive them and shepherd them and train them as such. Even as a man is called to care for the inheritance he has received from his fathers, so a man is called to care for the inheritance God has given him in the form of his children. We are called to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord – teaching them, training them, instructing them.
So fathers, how are you doing? Don’t just proclaim that children are a blessing – act it out by being engaged with the blessings God has given you. Take time to shepherd them, to correct them, to admonish them, to encourage them – invest in your children so that they can indeed act like a blessing and not a curse – to you and to their neighbors. Your goal is that your children rise up to worship and serve the Living God by loving their neighbors.
In the same fashion, as God’s people generally, we need to beware that we are receiving and welcoming all of God’s people into our congregation – particularly the little ones. For of such is the kingdom of God.
Reminded that we have rejected the blessing of fruitfulness and embraced fruitlessness instead, let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.