Love in Action

Daily Devotional

A heritage from the Lord.

Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.       Psalms 127:3

German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” When we abort children as a form of birth control it sends a clear signal that we value leisure and self more than we value our offspring. This is not a new phenomenon. In the Greco-Roman world, exposing unwanted children by placing them outside in the elements during the first few weeks of their life before the child underwent the rituals of naming and purification often resulted in the child’s death unless someone intervened. Infanticide and infant abandonment were legally permitted and widely tolerated practices in ancient Rome until the late fourth century. Rather than viewing it as murder, the Romans viewed the newborn as not yet fully human. A child only gained true personhood days later through formal naming rituals.

Early Christians were merciful and adopted many of the exposed children. They valued every life and embraced the ideas of the Old Testament that we are all made in the image of God and therefore every life, even the life of a child, is precious. Not only did the early church value the life of these discarded children, but they considered it their mission and ministry to raise, not only their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but also these exposed and rejected children.

Cain asked the Lord, “Am I my brother’s keeper.” The answer is, “yes.” An African proverb says it takes a village to raise a child. We all have a responsibility to not only see that a child is not aborted but after that child is in the world, let’s not abandon them and charge their parents to raise the child without any help, especially when some may not have wanted the child but did not believe in abortion. How are we showing love to those who are least able to care for themselves? Are we supporting schools, mentoring, and other programs that will provide support for families with children, or are we too concerned about the impact it will have on our taxes. Jesus loves the children and rebuked those who tried to keep children away from Him. We should follow His example because children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.