"God is good." There is no better way to express my thoughts as I sit here at midnight in the hospital room next to my wife who earlier today gave birth to our fourth child, Moriah Brook. The delivery went well, the baby is healthy and strong, and Robyn's ordeal of labor and birth is now over and she can can get some much-deserved rest. When there are so many potential problems with pregnancy and childbirth, it is truly a blessing that everything went as smoothly as it did.
Although this is the fourth time I've welcomed a child of ours into the world, it is an experience that can never become ordinary to me. Here is this new human being that God has formed and created in the womb, and she is coming into the world to begin the entire life that lies before her. She is a little person, with all of the dignity and intrinsic worth of a image-bearer of God, yet with all of the helplessness and need of a newborn infant. The mirage of human autonomy and proud self-sufficiency disappears when you see a baby born. Here is irrefutable testimony of our creatureliness, that God alone is the giver and author of life.
And the responsibility I feel as her father! Not just that she is another body to clothe and mouth to feed (though that is very true!). But as her father, I will leave an indelible imprint on her life forever, for good or for ill. The decisions I make, the habits I cultivate, the character I demonstrate (or fail to demonstrate), no longer affect just me, but will profoundly influence the heart and life of this little girl.
But this little baby will also have, and already does have, a tremendous influence on me just because she is my daughter. Because I love her, if she suffers I will hurt. If she is content, I will be glad for her. If she grows into a godly young woman and one who loves Christ, I will rejoice. If she drifts from Christ, and rebels against her parents and God, I will grieve. She, along with her two sisters and brother, have no idea just how much influence they have over my heart and life.
I give thanks to God for this day, and for the arrival of little Moriah. I pray I will be a good and faithful father, not that she will merely obtain some happiness in this world, but that she might come to know and love her Father in heaven.
Posted by Pastor Scott at March 5, 2007 11:32 PM
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