The beauty of this new person in our care was staggering. Yes, some clean-up would be needed, but this is OUR child! This was a gift from God himself. And to think, God entrusted us with such a gift is staggering.
To be sure, God also gives to us parents responsibilities—feeding, changing diapers, getting up at odd hours of the night, fighting sleep during the day.
I'm sure we weren't any different from other new parents. We looked at his delicate ears. We noticed, when awake, how alert his eyes were as they followed movement and sound. The delicate mouth that always seemed to be seeking food. Moving down, we count—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10—yep, all ten fingers are there. Of course, we then go down to the toes—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10—all are there, also.
Of course, we check to make sure that the doctor wasn’t lying when she said, "It's a boy." He's a boy, alright.
Such a tiny package. He seems so fragile. In fact, when the nurse placed him in my arms and asked me to follow her to the observation nursery, I asked if I would break him. No doubt she heard or sensed similar doubts before. She laughed and reassured me I wouldn't break him.
The greater gift from God is that He gives us the gift of parenthood to promulgate the human race. And it was through child-bearing and parenthood that God effected our salvation. Right after the fall into sin, God gave this promise to Adam and Eve when He told Satan:
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:15)
Paul echoes this when writes:
"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." (Galatians 4:4,5)
On the Genesis passage, Luther expounds in his Lectures on Genesis. He writes of God's grace in mankind's darkest hour. After all, didn't God say that the day they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they will surely die? (Genesis 2:17) But in granting women the priveledge of bearing children—and thus preserving the human race—God graciously allowed mankind to live on. And eventually, God's Son would be born of a woman, to live a perfect life in our place and to die the death that was rightfully ours.
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