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That children are a beautiful gift from God is no longer a cultural given. We are experiencing what has been called a global baby bust. The reasons for the plunging birth rates are complex, but none of them should make us doubt that “children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Ps. 127:3). God doesn’t dictate when to have children or how many we should have, and in His sovereignty He alone opens and closes the womb (Isa. 66:9). But Christians must have a positive vision for children, believing that “blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Ps. 127:5). Here are some ways that children are a blessing.
Children prove God’s faithfulness. God’s promise to believers and their children is answered by His gift of actual children who trust Jesus and replenish His church (Gen. 15:5–6; Acts 2:39). The birth of covenant children confirms that the Lord is “the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deut. 7:9).
Children care for the aging. “Men are defended by their children, as it were with a bow and arrow,” John Calvin writes (see Ps. 127:4). The church, through the labor and generosity of its successive generations, helps meet the needs of the saints. Through children, either natural or spiritual, God truly “gives the barren woman a home” (Ps. 113:9).
Children sanctify God’s people. The neediness of children requires their caretakers to “look not only to [their] own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). That is the way of the cross. Like marriage, parenting is a formative institution. Parents build and labor. They “rise up early and go late to rest” (Ps. 127:2). But godly parents learn to trust the Lord for their sufficiency.
Children model godliness. The heart of faith is trust. Little children, especially, trust even more than their knowledge allows them to explain, thus showing older people how to lean on Jesus (Matt. 18:1–4). As they grow, by their passionate and energetic zeal, young people can be examples to the church “in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).
Children glorify God. Faithful children aren’t future worshipers but present ones; even those of little stature can glorify the Great King. The children “crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ” prompted Jesus to quote Psalm 8:2: “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies [God has] prepared praise” (Matt. 21:15–16).
In this fallen world, children bring their own trouble. The first children caused pain and grief (Gen. 3:16; 4:25). So do their descendants. But Scripture’s command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” is preceded by these words: “And God blessed them” (1:28). Let us thank God for children. Let us trust Him with the gift of children. And let us obey Him in teaching them—and learning from them—how to glorify and enjoy God.