“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
Family was the first community that God designed where a child could find comfort, security, acceptance, love, purpose and the modeling of what it looked like to live devoted to Christ. The family was even the foundational place in which the Son of God was welcomed in which to grow from childhood to adulthood. God did not automatically create Jesus as an adult, but for His own purposes, placed Jesus into the hands of Mary, his mother and Joseph his earthly father. When God chose to bring Jesus into the world, as a full reflection of his glory and being, he chose to bring him into a simple family with a mother and father and, eventually, siblings. It was within the context of this home that Jesus was trained and instructed and loved and nurtured, both protected and prepared for his ministry ahead.
Throughout his life, Jesus upheld and affirmed the original design of marriage and family and stressed the needs and concerns of children. In Luke 2:51- 52, for instance, we read that Jesus willingly submitted himself to the authority of his parents and that he prospered in this role of a son to parents. Even from the cross, Jesus expressed his respect for family, requesting specifically that his disciple John take care of his mother, Mary
Jesus also demonstrated a consistent concern and affection for children and considered them important to the work of God's kingdom. Again and again the Gospels show him spending time with children, talking to them or blessing them or drawing them onto his lap. He even told people directly that they needed to become like little children in order to enter into his kingdom.
Clearly, nothing in God's mind had changed between the time of the Old Testament and the New in regard to the design of the family and the centrality of children in his plan to bless and redeem the earth. I think we can assume as well that the Lord's view of children and what they mean in a family and a society is the same today.
Join me today as we reflect on God's design and purpose for family, and reflect on how even research and science undergird, with vast research, the importance of a mother's role, with the family as foundation.
In what ways have you been influenced by cultural expectations that conflict with God's design? What impact has this had on your family?