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Friday 30 August 2013

The Idol of Pregnancy and the Precious Gift of Adoption

The Age of Absolute Rights
Today we live in a culture which imagines it has inalienable rights to just about everything, including children. Who cares what your arrangements or conditions are: single, gay, straight, fertile or infertile, you have a 'right' to a child.

This attitude ignores God's revealed will (children are for married couples alone) and his secret plans (God has wonderful purposes even when this world's fallen biology fails a married couple).

If we are not careful we believers can end up demanding of God what he has nowhere promised in a fallen world and setting up nothing short of an idol - an 'object' (in this case a child) which alone, we say to ourselves, will give us the happiness we seek (and today imagine we 'deserve').

What happens if in the good - nay, infinitely good - providence of God we find ourselves infertile (husband or wife or both)?  Few can respond better to this sad experience than a Christian infertile woman who has been through the experience with tears in her eyes, an open Bible in her hand and just as importantly a humble, a teachable and open heart.

Listen to Rosaria Champagne Butterfield:

"Over the years, I have listened to too many grieving women who interpret their infertility as a sign that they cannot fulfill their God-given role as a life-giver. One woman recently said to me: "I dreamed of having six children. When I didn't get pregnant, I felt betrayed by God because my dream is crushed." I find these conversations so fruitful for Christ-centred redirection. God is not crushing the dreams of parenthood when he deals the card of infertility. God is asking you to crush the idolatry of pregnancy to be sure. And he is saying: "Dream My dreams, not yours! Currently, there are 7,000 children in Virginia who are waiting for adoption. Give him your dreams, and watch them become cosmic Christian doctrine. My role as a life-giver is not in any way compromised by my infertility. My ability to see the world with spiritual eyes is sharpened by it, however." (The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert).

This is great godly wisdom. What wonderful opportunities Christians have to adopt children, as Joseph did  Jesus (so fully adopted that the link Jesus had to David and Abraham is through Joseph's line, not Mary's.)

Adoption in Scripture, is no second-class child-provision arrangement. Thank God, he is a Champion of Adoption. Thank God that he did not reject us when we turned our backs on him but adopted us into His Family and set for Christians everywhere a wonderful example.

Just imagine if Christians by the thousand took up adoption (or fostering) - what a wonderful effect that would have on our nation - and those kids. 

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Why are beaches so beautiful?




An amazing set of conditions

The reason we flock to sandy beaches in the summer is worth exploring for a moment. A number of different factors all combine to make beaches so alluring. Here are some of the main ones:
Reason #1: beaches are sandy - unlike rocky coastlines, so beaches are soft underfoot and soft to lie on

Reason #2: beaches are washed by the tides - without the tides, a sandy beach could be a most unpleasant smelly place because organic debris washed ashore would stay there and rot

Reason #3: beaches are refreshed by the tides - every morning the beach is new because the tide has washed away the sand castles and footprints of yesterday

Reason #4: because of the slope of the sea floor leading up to the beach, sea waves fall over and become breakers on the beach (that's what causes a breaker, a wave "falls over") - producing a sound that we enjoy, an interesting feature of the sea - and if you are a surfer an opportunity for fun

Reason #5: beaches are made interesting by the tidal movement of the sea - not only do shells get washed up each day, but  interesting objects (and rubbish too!) which have fallen overboard appear on the beach each day. When I was a boy growing up in Karachi, I would love collecting old battered radio parts and even old rusty watches on the beach....

Reason #6: sand has variable properties: when it's dry, it soft to rest on, when it's wet it's firm and easier to walk on and can be formed into sandcastles, art or whatever you please

Reason #7: the different thermal properties of sea and land means that on a sunny day there is always a breeze at the sea/land interface, making the heat more bearable

I don't for one moment believe these conditions are accidental. They are the craft work of a loving Creator who has not merely fine-tuned the whole grand universe for life, but fine-tuned the small details of it for our pleasure.

A universe suitable for life could be a harsh and ugly place, but the God who is there and is not silent has made it beautiful and enjoyable, to draw us to him.

The shortness of this life

Beaches also remind us of the transiency of life: we are here today and gone tomorrow.

We walk along the beach in one direction, and by the time we return our footprints have long been washed away, lost forever in the movement of the sea, sand and waves:

 "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom..."
                  
said the aged Moses (Psalm 90) in an inspired and reflective moment.

There can be no better way to apply our hearts to wisdom than to seek the good God who has revealed himself everywhere in his beautiful creation and revealed himself supremely in Jesus Christ, his only Son, while there is time. 


Photo by Elizeu Dias on Unsplash