I think your child being baptized should be seen rather like your child joining the army. It’s a great honor. The child will be incredibly well-equipped and trained. He or she will mature rapidly. But he or she may also be taken overseas for years at time, suffer injuries, or even die in the service.
Just so, when our children commit to Jesus, they aren’t buying an insurance policy–they’re committing to go wherever the Spirit leads them. It may be to a blessed life, like Abraham’s, or a difficult life, like Job’s. We may get a call to go to a heathen land, like Jonah, or may get to stay home, like Nathan. But just like joining the army, you don’t really get to pick.
When a parent witnesses the rebirth of his child, the rebirth should be complete joy, but a joy shaped by the realization that the child may become a missionary, or run a homeless shelter, or serve as a preacher for a struggling church, or even give his or her life for the cause of Christ. And we parents need to be prepared to make that sacrifice and support our children when they head of to another part of the world for the sake of the cross. More importantly, we need to realize that this is part of the calling. It’s not so much the downside as the upside. After all, the nature of your child’s being born again is to that you’ve had to surrender your child to a new father and new family that have a greater, higher call on him than you.
Therefore, we need to reflect on the nature of the dreams we dream for our children. Do we imagine degrees from great universities and wealth and fame? Or do we imagine a child living the Beatitudes? Perhaps somewhere in here is a partial answer to the problem with our failing to keep our children in the church.
