God's Gift

Can you imagine if our omnipresent and all-powerful God sent us a special gift that He created with His own hands? I am sure upon receiving such gift, we would all cling to it and take extra care of it. But the likelihood of this actually happening is slim to none right? WRONG!

God has given us many gifts, such as eternal life, spiritual gifts, etc. However, God has also delivered a very special gift to each of us which is unlike any other; we can touch this gift with our own hands and hearts--this gift is our children. The Bible says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights . . ." (James 1:17 NKJV). Our  children are the perfect examples of such a gift spoken of in the book of James. In God's grace and righteousness, He willed to give our children to us as gifts. Yet, He does not intend for us to keep our children forever; instead, He temporarily entrusts them to us to protect them, nurture them, and instill a godly heart within them so that they could find their way back to Him to spend eternity with Him.

Like you, I pray for my children often. I pray for protection for my children, I pray for each of them to have godly discernment, and I pray for them to have a genuine faith (among other prayers). When I pray I sometimes say something like, "Lord, please protect my children . . . ." However, this prayer is incorrect because they are not my children; they are first God's children and then my children so actually they are our children.

I recall all three occasions when my husband and I proudly stood before our congregation and dedicated our children back to the Lord. We each had our best clothes on and we proudly stood amidst the flashing cameras and rolling videos. However, God looked beyond the superficial show and listened intently to the promise we made to Him. That day we promised to faithfully perform our duties as Christian parents--to raise them according to His commands and guide them on the path that would eventually lead them back to Him. Let us not forget such promises because He doesn't.

Many of us are well-versed on the story of Moses. As you may recall, Moses was born during a time of brutal slavery, in which the Israelites had become slaves of the Egyptians. At that time, the Egyptian King ordered that all male Hebrew children were to be killed. This order was enacted because Israel had grown into an immense people, which threatened the Egyptians. Moses' mother, Jochebed, was desperate to spare her infant child's life and made the courageous yet risky decision to place her newborn son in a basket and send him down the Nile River. King Pharoah's daughter found the child floating in the River and and decided to keep him as her own. At that moment, Miriam (Moses' sister) appeared from behind the bushes and suggested that she find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child until he was weaned. Pharoah's daughter agreed and sent Moses to Jochebed with specific instructions to care for him, but to eventually return him.

Jochebed nursed Moses for a couple of years and then returned him to Pharoah's daughter. Although Jochebed was Moses' biological mother, she knew that her time with him was short and that he was merely on loan with her--soon he would be returning to Pharoah's daughter.  You can bet that Jochebed did not waste any time while Moses was in her care. I can envision her pouring all she possibly could into this little child, by saturating him with her love and God's Truth. Her work evidently paid off because Moses grew up to be a mighty man of God who helped God lead Israel out of slavery.

Similar to Jochebed, we too have our children on loan . . . from the Lord. When God gave our children to each of us He never intended for them to be ours forever; instead, they were intended to be ours for a short time while on earth and then go back with Him for eternity. Just as Pharoah's daughter instructed Jochebed, God also instructs us with our children. For example, Deuteronomy instructs us to teach our children the Laws of God: "And teach them to your children and grandchildren . . ." (Deut. 4:9). Elsewhere the Bible instructs, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6). Ladies, we have a duty just as Jochebed did, to "nurse" our children by feeding them with God's Word, strengthening their faith, and instilling an adoration of the Lord within them.

I admit, with the day-to-day demands and day-to-day frustrations it is easy to forget our God-given duties. It is also easy to forget that we have a short time on earth with our children, so we end up taking advantage of our time with them and losing vital opportunities with them to instill the love of Christ in their hearts. Instead, we should realize the urgency of each day and we should eagerly guide them back to God by training them in His ways.

I challenge you (and me) to daily look at our children as gifts from God.  Let's imagine a beautiful bow draped around their little bodies with a tag dangling from the top of their heads. The tag says, "This is a very special gift I created with My own hands just for you. I am entrusting it to you for just a short while. Please take good care of it and teach it how to come back to My arms . . . I will be waiting. Love, God."