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This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #119, January/February, 2002. Related articles from
this issue: |
Bringing a Child into a Hostile World A letter to mothers by Ilva Hertzler |
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Dear Ladies We became grandparents on September 27, 2001! We laughed and cried with joy when Sarah Ferne arrived. It is a blessing to know that she came to a home where her dad and mom love each other. We know that she is loved and will be taught to love God. Before our granddaughter was born, Dave and I prayed often for our Precious Little One. We asked God to give her dad and mom wisdom in preparing for the birth of their first child. But look at the date! This is only 16 days after 9/11, the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Since then our world has been in turmoil and despair. The threat of biological warfare is more intense. And this is in addition to what we already experience in life: murder, sexual abuse, corruption, sickness, poverty, AIDS, racism—well, you already know. I do not need to tell you. My granddaughter has been born into such a world! How can it be! Why should anyone EVER want to bring a child into such a mess. What is going to happen to her? Think of all that is “out there.” She didn’t ask to be born, did she? So why should she need to deal with all that she will be facing in life? Recently I’ve thought a lot about Jocabed, the mother of Moses. If there was ever a wrong time to bring a baby into the world, it was then. Her people lived under severe oppression and hostility in a foreign country. Get this! An order was given to the midwives that all the boy babies were to be thrown into the Nile river. All girl babies could live. Because of Jocabed’s faith and trust in God ( what else could it have been?), the very instrument of death became the instrument of salvation. She took a calcula-ted, educated, motherly guess that the heart of the wicked king’s daughter would still be soft toward an innocent baby. Instead of Moses’ being drowned in the Nile river, he was rocked in a little basket on the waves. He lived to grow up in the king’s house. God made him into a mighty leader of his people. I’ve thought about Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. She longed for a son so deeply that she promised to give him back to God if He would grant her request. But did she know what this meant? Did she know who would be training her son for God’s service? None other than Eli, a priest who had two wicked sons he could not control. God had some harsh things to say to Eli because he scorned God’s instructions regarding his role as priest. The nation of Israel was far away from God. Was THIS the right time to have a baby? God thought so. Samuel lived at an important time in the spiritual and political history of Israel. And there is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Would you have wanted your baby to be born under those circumstances? Was that a good time to have a baby? Humanly speak-ing, I would say NO. There is no perfect time in history to have children. There will be no perfect setting in which to train them to love and obey God. However, God has commanded us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The commandments He gives us are to be upon our hearts. We are to impress them upon our children. We are to talk about them when we are at home, when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up. In Moses’ day there were even symbols to wear on the hands and foreheads. The people were to write God’s laws on their doorframes and their gates. That is real “God immersion.” When you are in language immersion, that’s all you do. You eat, sleep and talk that language until you learn it well. Learning to love God in a wicked world doesn’t just happen. It takes day-by-day God immersion. Don’t wait for that perfect time in history. It will never come. Grandmothers should know all this. Ilva |
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