We have learned, this week, that the child whom Nathaniel and Krista are expecting next March will be a boy - our fourth grandson. His Uncle Nick has commented that we now have a four man bobsled team.
Or more likely a four-boy gang of little, holy terrors. I am already imagining our family get-togethers once number four gets running around with the others. Oh, the mischief that will ensue; the schemes, the mayhem, the noise, the rough-housing, the high-jinks. All ye without faith, abandon hope here...
I wouldn't miss it for the world! Or want it any other way."Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace." (Psalm 144:12)
Or grandsons or granddaughters.
I was partly joking with my comment above about faith and hope. But the more I think about it I realize it does take a lot of faith and hope to raise a child in today's world. Having faith in the child himself or herself. Having faith in one's parenting abilities and one's own character. Having faith in the family that the child is surrounded by. Having faith in the teachers and instructors to whom one entrusts the child down the road. Having faith in the friends they choose. Having faith when they head out the door on their own.
Then we hope. Hope for well-being and safety wherever they go. Hope for their happiness and fulfilment. Hope for their success and achievement. Hope they succeed at school. Hope they will be liked. Hope they will stay away from trouble, drugs and the wrong friends. Hope they get picked for the team. Hope they will hit the winning run in and feel triumphant. Hope there is never a war they will recruited to join.
That seems a lot to hope for in what seems to be a troubling world right now. But as our children enter into this world it is our loving responsibility as adults to have faith and to have hope. To allow them to know that they are secure, loved, celebrated, encouraged and comforted no matter the winds that may and will blow.
Finally, for me it also takes faith and hope that I look to God to sustain us, to enlighten us, to counsel us and to give us strength in our relationships with our children. One of the great images of Jesus was his ready willingness to gather children around him and bless them. I believe that children are extremely important to God and God grieves when children are abused, starving, unloved, and killed in wars. I believe that God expects us adults to do far better.
Now where did I put that bobsled?
Dale
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