FAITH: Celebrate The Gift Of Life!

My wife and I were married for ten years and didn’t have any children. One day my wife came to me and said, “Ethan, we need to adopt.” I’ll never forget when we saw our son Daniel for the very first time. He was very small and very round! He came from a village in western Alaska. He was absolutely perfect. Today Daniel is eighteen, in college and studying to be a teacher.

A year later we traveled to Georgia and adopted our second son, Isaac. When my wife turned forty she gave birth to our son Charles. Seven years ago my wife said, “Ethan, we need to adopt a girl.” I replied, “As bad as the world is, let’s stick with boys.” Thankfully, I listened to my wife! Our daughter Elizabeth is now six. She has red hair and is absolutely beautiful. Sometimes Elizabeth’s birth mother comes over (with her new baby) and we have a great time together.

Life is very, very precious. Psalm 127:3 says, “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is His reward.” Children are gifts graciously bestowed by God. Children are a highly valued prize- never a burden. Our children are an expression of God’s goodness and love to us.

God’s power is demonstrated in the birth of a child. David, Israel’s king, said, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13) God knit David together like a skilled artisan weaves a beautiful tapestry. David could only praise God for His wonderful power. He said, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the secret place” (Psalm 139:14-15). God made David in the secret place- a euphemism for the womb. He was woven together like a multicolored piece of cloth or fine needlepoint. Those threads produced his veins, arteries, muscles and tendons.

The opposite of life is death. The Bible speaks of three types of death. The first type is physical death. The word death means separation. At physical death, a person’s immaterial part is separated from their material part. The body is separated from the soul. Genesis 5 is a long genealogy. Over and over again it says, “….and he died.” (verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31)

The second type of death is spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from God. God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they were forced to leave the garden. (Genesis 3:24) Sin brings separation from God.

The third type of death is the most terrifying of all and that is the second death. The second death is the final installment of the wrath of God. Every person who dies without the Lord Jesus will suffer the second death. Revelation 20:14-15 reads, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Thankfully, Jesus died on the cross and suffered for our sins to rescue us from the punishment of our sins. We must turn to Jesus for salvation.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture of death. We recently experienced the forty-fourth anniversary of Roe v. Wade- the decision to legalize abortion in America. It is estimated that fifty eight million children have died in America because of abortion. When I think of my four precious children, I’m thankful their mothers chose life.

David, the great warrior, said, “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.” (Psalm 127:4) Arrows must be shaped. No arrow begins straight, ready for battle. The soldier had to spend time whittling and shaping the branch into a straight arrow. We must train our children for righteousness.

Arrows must be directed. Our children must be armed with the gospel- the good news that Jesus died for our sins. Arrows must be released. At the right time we must release our grown children. We send our grown children into the world to make an eternal difference- not just to make a living but to make a difference for God’s glory and God’s kingdom.

Pastor Ethan Hansen

Faith Bible Fellowship

Big Lake, AK 99652