2 Cents

Three weeks ago my wife and I discovered we're going to have our first child. I cannot tell you what a great three weeks it's been. Every day is full of so much hope knowing that in roughly 7 months (Lord willing) our child will take its first breath and see us for the first time. As my dad recently told me, I'll never forget these next months.

Already through this experience God is teaching me two important truths.

First, Satan seeks to tempt parents to make their children idols. These times are gifts from God to be enjoyed fully. However Satan works hard during these times... not in trying to rob us of our joy, but urging us to turn our joy inward, to have God's gifts terminate on themselves (as Matt Chandler puts it), and to keep us from honoring God the true giver of these gifts. In short, Satan wants us to turn God's good gifts into idols. This is what happens when we take a good thing and make it an ultimate thing. This is what Satan wants me to do with my child.

In Romans ch. 1 Paul says that people who fall to this temptation have, "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen." (Rom. 1:25) The lie that Satan gives us takes many forms, but I think ultimately it tells us... "You can enjoy things apart from God." This is false. Anything we seek to enjoy apart from God will end up consuming us, taking us away from God, and ultimately destroying us. All joy should terminate at God, and God alone.

However a second truth God is making evident is that childbirth mirrors God's nature as Creator. Genesis 1:26-27 states that we are created in the image of God. One of the things this means is that we act out things on earth that mirror God's nature. For example our need for relationships mirrors God's eternal community with Himself in the Trinity from eternity past. In the same way when a couple conceives a child we mirror God's Creation of the world out of nothing as recorded in Genesis 1. In this way the married couple gains a deeper view of who God is. Most of us know in our heads that God is the Creator of all things. But when you conceive a child that head-knowledge transforms into heart-understanding because you are participating in some small way in putting forth God's image to the world.

A friend recently shared this quote with my wife and I:

"Birth, any birth, is our primary access to the creation work of God." - Eugene Peterson