The Blessing of Children

To readers of the twenty-first century, the ancient Jewish status of wives may seem unorthodox. But we must understand that the primary position of women in the Old Testament was within the structure of the family and she occasionally moved from one family unit to another. Throughout Old Testament history, the father exercised primary responsibility for the female members of the family.

Children and especially male children were needed for the strength of the family and the tribe and childbearing was essentially the fulfillment of a woman’s position in this primitive society. The inability to bear children was considered a curse from God and a diminishing of a woman’s divinely assigned station in life. Thus, a childless woman felt disgraced, and to have children was the greatest blessing she could experience.

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!" This is a poignant expression of a longing that throbs through all the Old Testament. To the people of Israel childlessness was the ultimate tragedy; and to the woman it meant not only sorrow but humiliation and shame. We remember the sorrow of Abraham and Sarah when for so long they had no heir born of their own flesh (15:2-3; 16:2).

But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir” Genesis 15:2, 3.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her" Genesis 16:1, 2.

The yearning for parenthood which the Old Testament continually reflects was the natural human instinct, yet it was something more. It represented the deep desire for the continuance of one’s own life and character. As far as we know, in the records of the earliest patriarchs there is little or no evidence of belief in personal immortality. The one way in which a man could survive would be through his descendants. Children therefore were the greatest gift that could be asked of God. So sang one of the psalmists:

“Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.” (127:3-5).

The proverbial writer went on to say: “Children's children [grandchildren] are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children” (17:6).

All through Jewish history the family tie has been tenacious and precious. This has been one of the great reasons for the amazing power of survival which the Jews has shown in spite of persecution and all the other alien forces that threatened its disintegration. In the Fifth Commandment, family solidarity is made the ground of God’s own assurance of the people’s life.

Children, precious in the sight of God, are utterly dependent and trusting until adult unworthiness breaks the trust. A child is friendly and unconscious of race or creed and will play with any other child until adult prejudice spoils the relationship. They are brutally honest until taught by the adult world that honesty is not the best policy. Children live in constant wonder, make toys out of trash, and find life a pleasant romance. Children are God’s children and they are candidates for the new kingdom.

No words could more strongly convey the Christian truth regarding the preciousness of children than Jesus’ words: “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” Matthew 18:10. (Of course, this passage is not only referring to children, but all saints whom the world regards as insignificant and unimportant). Every child has his/her own angel.

So important is the child that Jesus solemnly warns “if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Jesus loved and valued children. And only as we share His convictions and appreciate the blessing of children, are we likely to join with Him and give our children their place of importance and respect.

All too often we fail to remember the blessing of children in the ordinariness of daily living. They “get in the way,” or are the “nuisances” that limits adult pleasures. Then we despise them by neglect, by failing them in Christian nurture, and by a society cruel and corrupted in adult pride. If only we knew the real blessing of children; if we only knew that the child could lead us to salvation. It was in childhood years that Jesus found the perfect analogy for membership in the kingdom of God. Children already have the spirit of the kingdom’s citizenship for they are dependent and receptive; qualities without which any of us can enter.

When His disciples asked Him who was the greatest in the kingdom, Jesus did not point to any preacher, philosopher, governor or president. Rather, He emphasized a great truth in vivid dramatization when He took a little child in His arms, and said to the crowd, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”If we do this, if we forget ourselves in giving ourselves to ones from whom we can reap no benefit in return, doing it in His name, that is, as something to which our relationship to Him impels us, we receive Him also, and the Father who sent Him.

“One of these little children” also has tremendous social implications for the whole world. Think about what it means if society really did “welcome” a child in Jesus’ name and spirit. Yes, our society does acknowledge a child. The child is born, and his or her name is duly recorded in the Office of Vital Statistics, and the census after a while takes note of her/him as a number. The Bureau of Internal Revenue will even take note as ground for tax exemption. But such statistical “receiving” is far from receiving the child in Christ’s name, welcoming him/her as a child of God into an enfolding, sustaining social group.

Sadly, children are not always welcome but either grudgingly accepted as some potential for labor or as decimal points on the profit side of some business ledger, or tolerated as another mouth to feed, not as sons and daughters of almighty God. Much of it is as casual and indifferent as to give rise to the cry,

O God! That bread should be so dear,

And flesh and blood so cheap!

~ Thomas Hood

The child set in the midst by Jesus is the symbol of the truth that the final test of a society is what it does to and with its children. How do we in America treat our children? There is the peril of war, preventable disease, and social conditions breeding delinquency, inadequate education, and spiritual neglect among others. You may recall reading, a few years ago, through a mistake on the roll in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Kaylee Reynolds, two years old, received a summons to serve on a jury. I think it may have been a divinely inspired error; for indeed, children will be the final jury before whom our society must be tried.

What a joy and blessing it is for a family to truly welcome children into its fellowship in the spirit of our Lord, Jesus Christ, forgetting self in service, conscious of the responsibility of bring a precious soul into its true heritage.

And, it hardly needs to be said that the Church has no higher calling than to give itself to children in love and care, each being a corporate member of the body of Christ. For as Jesus makes clear, whenever that happens the proper stage is set for that child’s entrance into the kingdom of God.

Let the mind of a child be in you, “for it is to those who are childlike that the Kingdom of God belongs.”

Amen!