Infertility Jealousy & 2 Samuel 12:1-4

I sat listening to this woman share her story.  Her job was just a job.  It wasn't that it was unsatisfying, but it wasn't really satisfying either.  Their life was "average" in the sense that nothing stood out as remarkable.  She struggled with her own physical battle with an unseen disease and yet this illness did not define her.  But when she spoke of her children she smiled, not with pride, but with love.  And then I heard the Scripture speak:

"There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought.  He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children.  It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms.  It was like a daughter to him.

Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him.  Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."  (2 Samuel 12:1-4)

As I listened to this woman talk about her sons, I realized that I had become the rich man.  I am blessed with an incredible job in which I get to utilize gifts, training, and experience that has come from God to help others and to have a sense that my life matters.  I have a beautiful marriage, as I'm married to my best friend and companion in life.  He is a good guy.  My extended family lives near by.  We can afford our bills without our generosity getting in the way.  And yet, I see a child in an "imperfect" home and think that I could do better.  This is arrogance at its best.

Sometimes, actually quite often, I see God blessing a family with a child and as a result of that child's birth and life those adults become better people.  They gain a sense of purpose and responsibility and their life choices and path changes.  I've heard it said that we are born into the family with the right parents for our personality.  Perhaps a child is the right personality and temperament to mold the parents? 

When the barren look with jealousy on those who have been blessed with biological heirs, they need to remember that the people they are jealous of might be looking back with jealousy of their own.

Those parents are probably better parents than you know them to be.  And if they are as neglectful as you think, their children will still survive and possibly be even better for it.  What you can give those kids will never be the same as what their parents can give them.  As they are bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh.