"What then will this child be?"

Luke 1:66

          The moment is always magical, when the nurse places a newborn into the arms of an anxious mother.  The pain of childbirth immediately fades as the feelings of love and wonder grow.  Father and family will later press their face against the glass of the nursery to see this child full of hope and promise.  Each one may wonder, “What will this child be?”

          The birth of John the Baptist was unusual because of the advanced age of his mother, and because his father lost the ability to speak as soon as Elizabeth conceived.  This disability followed the doubt he expressed to the angel Gabriel about God’s ability to help his wife conceive; odd in that he knew well the story of Abraham and Sarah.

          The Bible gives us these clues so that people would know this child would have an important future.  But, to every parent every child has an important future.  We all ask, “What will this child be?”  But, not one of us knows the answer.  We do our best.  We try to be good parents, send them to good schools, and bring them to Sunday School; but in the end only God knows what any child may be.

          All we can do is place each of our children in God’s hand, and pray God hold them close to his heart.  This requires, in some sense, a letting go in order to let God, and that is hard to do with someone we so cherish.  Our nature is to protect, but we can’t always.  We must trust that God can, and will hold our children in the palm of His hands.