How we treasure babies! In Psalm 127 Solomon, the son of David wrote that children are a heritage from the Lord. Some translations use the word gift. They are the fruit of the womb. In other words they are a blessing.
In Genesis 1:27 we read that God created man in his own image. That sets man apart from other creatures as as no other image is created like this. No other creature has dominium over the earth.
We also learn in the Old Testament prophetic books of Isaiah and Jeremiah that God formed us in the womb. He knitted us intricately together. This means that life starts in the womb and we are already in God’s image in the womb. Genesis also reveals to us that it is God who opens and closes the womb. Life does not come without God’s permitting it.
Although people’s actions enable having children, we must remember that children are a blessing and nothing happens with the sovereign authority of Almighty God!
When David praises God in Psalm 8 and I quote “out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger”. The very being of what some perceive as insignificant or noisy is God’s creation and this baby cry can prove God’s existence to the world. Our saviour arrived in this world to redeem us, with his life starting as a vulnerable unborn in Mary’s virgin womb, then as a dependent little baby in an unmarried young poor women’s arms.
When Jesus’s disciples asked him who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 18, he answered that those who humble themselves like children will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Children in their humility and dependence on adults are a constant reminder to us to become humble and dependent on Jesus.
To those women who are overwhelmed with a child, please hear what I am saying:
Peter writes in 1 Peter 5 that we must cast all our anxieties on Jesus because he cares for us. Jesus also told a women who had had five husbands and was living with a man that we must worship in spirit and truth. The apostle Paul tells us that we must present our bodies as a living sacrifice in Romans 12:1. Our lives must reflect service to Jesus and so to one another, most especially the vulnerable, those who cannot fend for themselves. If ladies are burdened, please be humble enough to ask for help. It takes a community to contribute to a child. People can and want to help. Most importantly Jesus Christ, who died on a cross, in love for our sins, wants to help. He tells us in John 13:34 that as his disciples we must love one another. Mommies love your babies.