Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.
Psalm 127:3-4 (NIV)
Where Children Come From
The harbor office opens at six. The man behind the window hands out keys, and every spare in the basin hangs on a board behind him, one hook to a boat. He sold his boat in March. His hook holds the visitors’ spares now.
Everything in that basin goes to whoever waited longest for it. The inside slips, the ones the wind can’t reach, go by a list older than he is, and there are men on it who signed when their kids were small and haven’t moved up much. A man moves up when the man ahead of him dies or gives up. He came to the top of that list the same spring he sold the boat. Nineteen years of waiting handed him a slip on the week he had nothing to put in it.
Rising early and staying up late, toiling for food, comes to nothing, because the Lord grants sleep to those he loves. Children come from the same hand. They’re a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Children born in a man’s youth are like arrows in the hands of a warrior, and it’s the Lord who gives the children.
He gives the same way into a house with four of them at the table and into a house where nobody ever came. He was giving before the man in the dark ever thought to get up, and whoever is at the table this morning came from his hand. Nothing in the psalm runs on a list, and nobody moves up it.
The man watches a boat come in past the breakwater early, and whoever is at the wheel cuts the turn too fast. It ties up in the inside slip he waited nineteen years for.
A Prayer to Remember
God, the man in this psalm rises early and stays up late and comes home with nothing to show for the hours. Thank you for granting sleep to the people you love. Thank you for calling children a heritage from you, and for counting them a reward. Whatever is in my house this morning came from you.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
