Lately we’ve been doing a unit study for mommies on babies. So far we’ve been looking into overpopulation and the roots of contraception and abortion.
Today I was originally going to present a discussion on the pros and cons of pregnancy and childbirth. But, since Christmas is just around the corner, my thoughts were focused on looking at the root of the issue.
As I was spending a lot of think-time on this subject, always in a state of prayer and listening to God, I also had a question.
Now, as most of you know, we have an excessive amount of children (15, although it doesn’t seem that huge to us). While there is great over-all potential for great blessing, we have found that having a lot of children does not necessarily mean you became exponentially holy or righteous with each birth. As I have been uncovering lots of evidence for the positive outcomes of receiving children, we all know well the negative examples of people who had lots of children and were awful people nonetheless.
Even more obvious are the people who have few children, yet are extremely unhappy and judgemental individuals.
So, what makes the difference? What makes it possible for some people to be touched and blessed by children, and others to become sad and embittered?
The answer came to me in this passage:
Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”
Mark 9:36-37
It occurs to me that the question, the root of the question, is not about murdering the unborn, or preventing pregnancy. It is about receiving children.
In this sense, contraception and abortion have this same root. It isn’t a great leap from preventing babies out of convenience to killing babies out of convenience.
It is a misunderstanding of God. It is a missing-out of all He wants to be for us. It keeps us from going “further up and further in.”
It’s not the number of children, whether 0 or 20. It’s the heart willing to receive them because of trust.
After all, not all of us are able to receive babies, but the ability or non-ability does not remove us from the blessings of God.
Whether or not we receive the blessings of God in our lives depends on what sorts of people we are; either small-minded or big-hearted.
The small-minded are trapped in the prison of their own perceptions.
- Small-minds have trouble seeing beyond trained prejudices, fear of risk, and protection of self.
- Small minds tend to be “bean counters,” as in “everything must be fairly distributed.”
- Small minds also live with an assumption of finite resources, including money, love, and time.
- Small minds usually rely on logic that only seems right, but is irrational and easily disproven, although they are closed to any civil discourse on the subject.
- Small minds think of God as aloof, regimented, and stingy.
Big-hearted people are not hampered by their finite minds.
- Big hearts tend to be positive and hopeful.
- Big hearts know God can be trusted.
- Big hearts are not afraid to risk.
- Big hearts continue to be hopeful even when encountering difficulty.
- Big hearts embrace the good and the bad alike as all working for good (Romans 8:28).
- Big hearts believe that, when necessary, God can create the resources needed.
- Big hearts believe that sowing bountifully means reaping bountifully.
- Big hearts rely on logic based in truth through the lens of faith in a warm, gracious God.
God is big-hearted,
and small-mindedness does not please Him. His heart is huge, and so are His plans.
But we have to choose to enter in.
For example, God had huge plans for Israel in the Promised Land. However, when it was time to spy out the land, almost all of the Israelites became trapped by their own negative perceptions. Instead of listening to the good report of a “land flowing with milk and honey” and rejoicing, their irrational fears caused all the people, even the burly men, to bawl all night long!
Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night.
Numbers 14:1
Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who caught God’s vision. The Bible says Caleb had a “different spirit” and that He followed the Lord “whole-heartedly.” Because they were willing to receive the blessings, they were the only ones to enjoy them! (You can read all about it in Numbers chapters 13-14).
The parable of the talents is another great illustration. The small-minded man in the parable got just what he described out of his master; harshness and judgement. The other two men saw God differently, albeit to different degrees. They won out because the were not afraid of risk and had a big-hearted view of God.
This is not “spirutality” that works in a monastery but is not for the every-day person. This is real life theology in its applied state.
We have been trained to see everything from a negative side-view. Governments, money, morality, social issues, standard of living.
I believe that thinking and speaking with a dark foreboding expectation of the future sets things in motion so that our decisions begin creating the very things we say we dread. Our expectation of the future is causing us to build that future.
However, the opposite is also true. If we can turn our gaze on Jesus, our expectations can be adjusted so they are positive.
Hope of the future sets the ball rolling. When we believe everything is working for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes, our individual decisions begin to look different. We are falling into plans for a hopeful future, and, in doing so we are helping to create that future as an optimistic one.
Like Joshua and Caleb, our refusal to submit to the intimidating giants of gloom and doom gains us a ticket into the land flowing with milk and honey.
God’s Kingdom and plans are unbelievably generous and positive. When we catch hold of this, deep down in the core of our thinking, the way we operate changes completely.
This is the answer to my question as to what makes the difference.
Mary was big-hearted. She trusted in God’s plan even though to the natural mind it made no sense. In our natural-minded, small-minded world, everything must be in place before we can receive a child. But things were not in place when Mary received Jesus. Yet, in her trust, in her huge-hearted acceptance, she opened herself up to carrying GOD within her (which still blows me away).
With this she has won the eternal title of “Blessed.”
When we receive a child, into our wombs and into our lives, we receive Jesus. We become a picture of the miracle of God and Man–Emanuel.
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