Today's readings are Judges 13.1-25 and Galatians 2.1-21.
In our Old Testament passage today we have a common theme in Scripture. A couple, troubled with infertility, conceives a child according to a promise of God. Our Lord seems to take delight in showing that he is the one who bring s a deliverer. When God is going to bring blessing through the hands of a human deliverer he shows that he can raise up that person even though the parents could not.
If we think about it, whether God is raising up a judge of Israel, a child of Abraham through whom all the nations will be blessed, a priest like Samuel, a Messiah, or anyone else, the process is similarly miraculous. Our Lord takes a couple of cells from different people, puts them together, and creates a complete human being, living even when still microscopic. Our Lord has created us in such as way that conditions are perfect to raise up that offspring. Bearing of children and, for that matter, not bearing children, is a divine act. It is amazing when it happens and it is quite as amazing when it does not happen.
Many people today devalue children. They consider them to be nuisances, hindrances, possibly harmful to the environment, useless mouths to feed, certainly not worth protecting like we would protect endangered species. We live in a culture in which people have taken charge of reproduction, choosing when to have children, choosing not to have children, and often finding out when they do wish to have children that it doesn't happen as easily as they would like. One wonders what our society would be like if we didn't purposely kill close to a million unborn children per year through abortion. One wonders what kind of people we are destroying, or whether we would care for our children more if we really realized that every one of them is a gift from God.
Do all the children turn out perfect? We will see more about Samson in future days. No, they aren't perfect, any more than you and I are perfect. But they are given to us by our Lord, who works in very unusual ways sometimes.
In our Old Testament passage today we have a common theme in Scripture. A couple, troubled with infertility, conceives a child according to a promise of God. Our Lord seems to take delight in showing that he is the one who bring s a deliverer. When God is going to bring blessing through the hands of a human deliverer he shows that he can raise up that person even though the parents could not.
If we think about it, whether God is raising up a judge of Israel, a child of Abraham through whom all the nations will be blessed, a priest like Samuel, a Messiah, or anyone else, the process is similarly miraculous. Our Lord takes a couple of cells from different people, puts them together, and creates a complete human being, living even when still microscopic. Our Lord has created us in such as way that conditions are perfect to raise up that offspring. Bearing of children and, for that matter, not bearing children, is a divine act. It is amazing when it happens and it is quite as amazing when it does not happen.
Many people today devalue children. They consider them to be nuisances, hindrances, possibly harmful to the environment, useless mouths to feed, certainly not worth protecting like we would protect endangered species. We live in a culture in which people have taken charge of reproduction, choosing when to have children, choosing not to have children, and often finding out when they do wish to have children that it doesn't happen as easily as they would like. One wonders what our society would be like if we didn't purposely kill close to a million unborn children per year through abortion. One wonders what kind of people we are destroying, or whether we would care for our children more if we really realized that every one of them is a gift from God.
Do all the children turn out perfect? We will see more about Samson in future days. No, they aren't perfect, any more than you and I are perfect. But they are given to us by our Lord, who works in very unusual ways sometimes.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogger.com
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