Psalm 127:3-5 — Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Someone parks in the carpark where I work. There’s a bumper sticker on the car: “Jesus wouldn’t abort anyone”. Now this isn’t going to be an anti-abortion rant — but it triggered a thought. It’s about how attitudes to children have changed.
Myra talked the other day about how she couldn’t understand some of the horrific news stories we’ve heard recently about mothers killing their babies. She’s right. And I can’t understand the equally horrifying stories of abuse of children. I’m not going to sicken you with the details. If you must have them, go to your web search engine and look for “Florida child abuse story”. But really — don’t — it’s appalling.
Let’s change gears. Go to Facebook. Look at all the posts where people are showcasing their children. Now I know that (to quote our respected Sunday-school teacher) I’m going to tread on some toes here. But can somebody tell me how those cute photographs and videos are benefitting the kids? Or how about kiddie pageants and kiddie reality shows?
The bottom line on all of this is that children have become objects instead of people. The clearest indication is the rising trend for adults to use children as accessories. I know that the whole idea isn’t new — but the extent now is shocking, even among sweet Christians.
You see, to me children are God’s way of passing His gospel and story from one generation. Parenting is the art of bringing up children so they can best be partners in building the kingdom. Anything less is a betrayal. I love what Peter Lange said:
Through God’s blessing our labor prospers without harassing trial and without anxiety.—Parents have not given their children to themselves. God has presented them to them; are they also treated and educated accordingly?—We must gratefully and humbly ascribe to God every successful result, and nothing to our own strength, ability, or endurance, and employ all our strength, time, and gifts in reliance upon God’s assistance, and according to His will, so that we may not be ashamed.—To begin and end with God, takes from every day its burden.
Today, as it happens, is Saint Nicolas’ day (if I love saints, I certainly love this one who happens to be Nicolas of Myra). He is the saint who became Santa Claus. It would be so wonderful if we could honor his memory
by stopping the objectification of children and giving them back their personhood!