In a culture with ‘fur babies’, and calls to limit population growth by having no children, we must keep remembering God’s view of children: they are a blessing from God, part of his creation blessing and command, and they bear his image.

Children are the fruition of God’s command to ‘be fruitful’ and to ‘fill the earth’ (Gen.1:28) and are born out of the ‘one-flesh’ of the first marriage (Gen.2:23-25). And, they are affected by the fall – a child of Eve will crush the snake (Gen.3:15), their birth is painful under judgement (Gen.3:16), and they are sinful from birth in every part of their being (Gen.6:5; Ps.51:5).

God has always regarded children as part of his mob – they do not ‘grow’ into this, but their birth and life brings them into that community. They are there in the Exodus (Ex.12:13), they are there in the commandments (Ex.20:12), and they are present in the return and restoration of God’s mob (Ezra 8:21, 10:1; Is.59:21). Moreover, in the New Testament, nothing changes – just read the command at the end of Acts 2 (vs.37-40), and the instructions to the churches in Ephesians (6:1-4) and Colossians (3:20-21).

Like any human, this is only possible because of the work of the one seed of Eve: Jesus. It is by his life, death and resurrection, that any child, of any age, can be saved from their sins and brought back to God (Rom.5:12-19; John 3:16).