“When I think of the way our world is going, I’ve got to say, I’m scared to bring another person into this crazy world.”
Ever heard that?
Ever said it?
I wonder if Jewish families during the Babylonian conquest thought similar things. So much political unrest. Such a lack of security. People in your country being taken away to Babylon. Families being split up. A crazy world, indeed. Who wants to bring a child into a world of exile? Wouldn’t it be incredibly unloving to bring a child into such an environment, where suffering and difficulty are pretty much inevitable?
Some of them likely figured they should just wait it out. Wait until things get a little better and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps they should keep a low profile and wait until the opinion polls start turning in their favor again. Then they’d start thinking about a family again.
We know this type of thought was spreading throughout the exiled community because Jeremiah says this:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:5-7)
As Christians we are exiles. At times we feel that exile more than others. In those really dark times when it seems the world has gone mad, I start to hear more and more people wonder about having babies and bringing them into this world. And I hear those arguments even cropping up in my own heart.
But I’m convinced from Jeremiah 29:5-7 that even in the midst of exile and persecution we are not called to decrease but to multiply there. We cannot sit on the sidelines and wait for the world to get better before we have children. It is a great act of faith to have a child in a time such as this. But we do this, knowing that Christ holds our future and that every life is precious.
You can likely find other arguments for waiting on children. But I’m convinced that “the world has gone crazy” isn’t one of them. Don’t let that stop you from bringing life into a culture of death.
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