Children are God's Plan

By Ken Laue

I went to college with dreams of becoming a biologist or an entomologist (insect specialist). After graduation, God changed my plans and I have spent the last few decades working with children both as career and ministry.

"Feed my lambs," the Lord said. In so doing, I have come to love and enjoy kids. Just being around them can be very refreshing and exciting.

Today’s Western culture increasingly devalues children, as well as God's command to reproduce (or "multiply" as the Bible puts it).

My two young granddaughters have re-initiated me into the wonder and joy that kids naturally view things through. Adults have entirely different filters to perceive the world around them. A recent picnic reminded me of this phenomenon.

Madera Canyon is a recreation area that many Tucsonans love and enjoy. I was locking up the new SUV and reflecting on how the V-8 handled the ascent up the canyon.

I considered the technical aspects of taking some nature shots with my other new toy, a camera. So I was fixated on my own little world of machines while Grammie and the girls headed toward the restrooms.

In the short walk to the outhouse, 6-year-old Leilani discovered acorns on the ground in a world that I, as an adult, would never have seen. She gathered two handfuls of the little treasures faster than I could walk over there.

While I was checking out camera angles in the canyon world of twisted, white sycamore trunks and rock pools, 4-year-old Abby was discovering a little spider underfoot, and Leilani captured a little white canyon tree frog.

Horsetails were nothing more than weeds underfoot as I tried to frame lofty Mount Wrightson and its high backbone ridge. But to the girls, the ancient Jurassic-looking plants were objects of wonder and fascination. Their long, jointed stems could be easily yanked apart into segments. Wonder or weed?

An old sycamore bent over the rocky stream was a photo op... if I could get the depth of field and lighting right. But to the kids, it became so much more - a natural jungle gym. 

The picnic areas at the end of the road merely presented the quest for available spots, and possibilities for a future puppet team picnic.

I scarcely saw the little footbridge across the gully which instantly became a "troll bridge” to the girls; or the staircases and boulders which – don't you know, silly Papa? – these are for climbing and playing on!

The little princesses got some mountain goat genes in them from – can’t imagine where.

On the other side of the equal sign, not everyone in the whole wide world values kids or enjoys them.

I have co-workers and relatives who are committed to being DINKs (double income no kids). Either because they don’t want to bring children into this evil world or because children would cramp their plans and suck up resources they could spend on themselves. 

As decades passed and we’ve retired, they've seen some of the struggles and heartaches we’ve had with our daughters and think they are glad they didn't go through all that.

But they also missed the blessing of parenthood, and the stretching and Christian growth it brings.

No, growing isn't always easy. But God has ordained our character development.

No pain, no gain.

Yeah, there's been some tough times. But experiences like the picnic in Madera Canyon make it all worthwhile.

Or seeing your offspring hanging in there for Christ even though they've been battered by the storms of life. Seeing them serving in the body of Christ no matter what.

In your face, Satan! 

If you look at a Phillips head screwdriver, it becomes obvious it was designed for one purpose: inserting Phillips head screws. Although I have ruined some by using them as awls or punches.

If you study the human anatomy, it is obvious that we were designed to reproduce; to be fruitful and multiply. You apply the analogy.

Whenever we defy one of God's intended purposes, we miss out on His blessing, best case scenario… or receive His judgment, at worst case.

In one sense, by selfishly choosing not to reproduce, we cheat God of what is rightfully His. God loves children.

In another aspect, we suffer the consequences. Case in point: the problem of fertility rates in developed nations.

World Magazine in a January 2011 article by Timothy Lamer, "Not Getting Any Younger," notes that "Low fertility rates leave Western nations with little choice but to raise retirement ages. But making that choice won't be politically easy."

Lamer says that nations don't have the populations to support programs like Social Security or Medicare which were designed on the assumption of growing societies.

Now big industrial democracies are having too few children. This is the unspoken problem behind the riots in Greece and France, Lamer notes, over "austerity measures."

Although the United States fertility rate has bounced back some, Lamer notes that in Germany nearly one-third of all women have no children. 

It seems to me that through the pill and abortion we have prevented or destroyed the very ones who would have been part of the work force one day, to support us in our old age.  Having just experienced the "big six-oh" and being just two years from drawing Social Security (unless they raise the age of retirement like France), this hits close to home.

If Western societies like ours had just obeyed God and been fruitful and multiplied, we wouldn't be in this dilemma.

And I won't even attempt to go into the great evil of abortion here, as that deserves its own whole article. There are so many childless couples who would gladly have raised that aborted baby if they would have been given the chance!

Children are God’s plan. Jesus said you can't even begin to get a handle on what His kingdom is all about unless you become like a little child.  

Those DINKs are middle age and beyond now, and alone. Why choose that scenario?

It really is a matter of anti-faith. If God intends for us to raise children, why can’t we trust Him to care for and protect them in this evil world? Don't we believe that He will provide the necessary resources?

Besides that, God intended children to be a blessing. Who in their right mind would want to reject God's blessings?

Yes, it does take courage to bring children into this evil world.  But whatever stresses and even heartaches that might be part of the process, God is big enough to handle it.

Do you believe that?

Do you really think the DINK lifestyle is more fulfilling than the life that God wants to give you? Think again.

I'll vote for the acorns, the spider, the tree frog and the horsetails; the troll bridge and the magic of the world through a child's eyes.