When your children get you right there

When you start a family it’s always with a sense of hope. There’s the initial hope that the pregnancy will go well and that there’ll be no complications. When you see the ultrasound images you hope that everything’s in the right place and that nothing’s wrong. As the bump gets bigger you hope that it won’t get too big! Once they’re born you hope they look like you, that they’ve inherited your best features. You hope for silly things like that they’ll say “dada” before they say “mama”. You hope that as they grow up they’ll love you as much as you love them. Hope fills your thoughts every day. But above everything else you hope (and pray) that one day God will call them to be one of the family – His family.

There are very few guarantees in this world, death and taxes are the two most commonly mentioned. Sadly entry into God’s kingdom isn’t a guarantee for anyone unless they accept God’s gift of life for themselves. As much as I love all my children, there’s nothing I can do to force their way into heaven and they don’t get a free pass just because I’m a Christian. So I do all I can do – I teach them God’s ways as best I can and I hope that they will see in my love for them just a shadow of God’s love for them. After that it’s between them and God. As a father that’s a heart-wrenching truth to have to face up to, but it is the truth.

Well, praise God one of my children came to an understanding of the Good News last night. Nikki called me up to his bedroom just as he asked God into his heart. I don’t think there will be another time in his life that I will be more proud than at that moment. My hopes and prayers for him have been answered.

So we once again have a newborn in the family… and the skies erupted with songs of praise… “Hallelujah!”

“¹⁰ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” – Luke 15:10 (NKJV)