“When [Christ] suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23b).
The truth is that God does not promise in His Word to make everyone parents in this life, and that truth hurts.
I know, for I am barren. In my 20-plus years of marriage to Michael Schuermann, God in His wisdom has withheld the gift of children from us. Plainly put, I have never been pregnant to the best of our knowledge, and no mother, judge, or government to date has signed over to us the parental rights of any child.
This is a painful, chastening reality in our daily lives. It is a public reality, one that accompanies us into every room, every church, every baptism, every wedding, every funeral, every birthday party, every dinner party, and every bedtime prayer. We would despair, but for the fact that the truth which pains us is also that which comforts us.
Allow me to unpack this divine paradox.
The psalmist confesses, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3), and Job avows of his own deceased children, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). We learn from scripture that God is the giver of the gift of children. And while His act of withholding — even taking away! — the gift of children certainly chafes me, the beseeching, barren believer whose quiver remains empty, the revelation of His being
