A few minutes past noon on the 5th of February I had the awesome privaledge to witness (for the fourth time) the birth of a child. On three previous occasions I held my wife's hand as she delivered my sons, on this a precious daughter. We are overjoyed and still in the very early stages of processing such a tremendous and life-changing experience. I've got a lot to share in the next weeks as i've been thinking very hard on a number of topics all closely related and most pertinent with respect to parents and children in particular, and life in general.
Psalm 127 is most often attributed to Solomon. Regardless of its authorship, the two-stanza song is challenging in its message and glorious in its truth in application. Verses 3-5 are what i'd like to focus on herein:
"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate."
In studying this passage I focused on two words, namely heritage and reward. Solomon chould have chosen any two words he wanted in this song, so why these two? One singles out sons and the other a reference to all the "fruits of the womb" as it is put in another translation. For those of us who see the Bible as the inspired Word of God it becomes even more encumbant upon us to answer why it is that these two words are used. First a brief word study:
Heritage - in the original the word was nachalah (nakh-al-aw) whose basic understood definition is inheritance or blessing. The root for the word means to receive the ability to control, possess and direct. So, sons are described as a blessing or inheritance which we are given the ability to control, possess and direct. Another description of inheritance that I found was "in the day he causes his sons to inherit that which is his." So, when verse 3 opens, the text is saying that God has caused the parents to inherit the blessing that is his and with it the ability to control, possess and direct the life of the son.
Reward - in the original the word used is sakar (saw-kawr) for which I found only one definition and that was a wage or benefit under contract of maintenance. So, all children are a blessing that carry with them the understanding of upkeep or responsible charge.
Two points jump out immediately from this brief study.
First, children are a blessing from God. It is said that you can tell everything you need to know about a culture by looking at what they do with their children. This is the point concerning life that I see as being completely unfathomable from a worldview standpoint. Even if members of a culture are completely deluding themselves in believing the Biblical-Christian world and life view they would have an infinantly high regard for children (it is understood here that children also encompasses unborn children, i.e. from conception). On the other side, however, for the antitheist the very best life can be is a successful procreative effort where genetic information has been passed to a subsequent generation. In the case of the Christian the parents bring home a son or daughter; the antitheist bring home a homonidic organism. Granted, this is a purely existential point, but with potentially horiffic outworkings.
Second, there is a responsibility for the parent to direct another life. Parents are to train their children with a direction in mind. My mindset has always been that I am not raising a two-, or three-, or four-year-old, but that I am raising a man (and now a woman) and they happen to be four right now. Every day, my responsibility as a father is to train my children to be men and a woman of God, pleasing in His sight, glorifying His name with their life as they make their choices and prayerfully become disciples of Jesus Christ, and strive to love God with all their hearts, mind, soul and strength and love other people as themselves. The picture given in the Psalm of the warrior with the bow and arrow is also special as any warrior does not just draw back his bow and shoot aimlessly. He selects a target, draws the arrow back, takes careful aim and when the time is right, releases that arrow. Again, for the antitheist there is a problem; namely, life is meaningless and the only goal is to pass on genetic information. So, to be true to the worldview the atheist would have to say their only responsibility is to pass on enough information, and to give only enough protection and care necessary for their offspring to procreate (taking into account of course the current requirements of local law enforcement and social standards which are the only standards of right and wrong, and are subject to change at any time). Anything beyond that is pure choice on the part of the parent.
Being a parent is an awesome privaledge, a blessing from God that parents have the responsibility to possess, order and direct. A very wise man once said that every father is an example for his children, he will either be a good one or a bad one. My prayer is that I will do an adequate job in understanding the blessing that my children are, given to me by Almighty God, to train up to be Godly men and a Godly woman in service to their God and their fellow man. It is a tall order to fill, and the only thing I know for sure is that that task will be impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through my life for my family.
One thing I have come to know is that God never gives the gift and the responsibility without also giving the strength and the grace. May God help me and all other fathers to think hard about these things.
Congratulations!
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