The Fruit of the Womb are a Reward - Algona Newspaper Article

Children are very often treated as a curse in our culture; we don’t want to have “too many” of them. Fertility is regularly treated like a disease, something which we medicate against. Unborn children are treated like commodities or science experiments. For example, Francis Collins, the former head of the NIH presided over, funded, ordered, or participated in experiments on human fetuses procured from abortions, such as a University of Pittsburgh experiment which grafted infant scalps onto lab rats. These are the types of atrocities we’d expect from Nazis, yet they’re taking place in our own modern day nation. 

Approximately 800,000+ abortions are performed yearly in the United States. About 3,500 abortions take place here in Iowa each year. Think about those numbers for a moment. About as many people as live in Emmetsburg are killed before birth in Iowa. More people than live in Des Moines are killed yearly in the United States. Those are some sobering numbers.

Contrast that with the way children and fertility are treated in the scriptures. The Psalmist writes: “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Children aren’t a curse, but a blessing! Fertility isn’t a disease, but a feature of being human! The crowning act of creation week was the creation of Adam and Eve. The great honor bestowed upon Adam and Eve, and all of their descendents, was that they would henceforth join in that crowning act of creation by procreating more people.

The value God places upon childbirth and infants in the womb was made manifest in the conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary. God Himself deigned to become a zygote! A blastocyst! A fetus! A baby! In so doing God honored and sanctified the womb within every woman and the children who live in them. To despise fertility and babies is to despise the Creator who so wonderfully knit us together in our mother’s wombs and gave us the superpower to procreate.

Yet, the way children are treated in our culture is embarrassing. For too long we’ve treated fertility like a disease, and we’ve treated children like a burden. God says that children are a reward! Why would we ever want to put a limit on something which God tells us is a blessing? If you won a million dollar reward, would you refuse it because you don’t want to have too many dollars? If you won a lake house or a new car, would you stand aghast at the prospects of having won such a reward? Of course not! Yet, in the scriptures Jesus regularly warns us of the dangers of riches, but never warns us of the dangers of having too many children; instead He praises children! 

In response to the way children have been treated in our nation and culture, we ought to repent to God and plead His mercy. And mercy is what God shows us. Jesus, who was conceived in the womb, became a man who died in order to forgive every sin, even the sins which began (or didn’t) in the womb. For our despising of children and fertility, God offers forgiveness. For our abortions and mistreatment of children, God offers forgiveness. Christ Jesus defeated death, and so by the power of Christ’s resurrection, we too can defeat this culture of death which reigns in our nation and replace it with a culture of life.

In the coming years big things will be happening. Hopefully we’ll see the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the issue of abortion returned to the states. Here in Iowa, we will then have to pass the Protect Life Amendment in a few years, which clarifies that the Iowa constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to an abortion. Finally, we’ll have to pass another law which bans abortions in our state. We have a lot of work yet to do.

But even more importantly, we have the duty and responsibility to pass on these truths of scripture and natural law which teach us that human life is sacred and valuable, even if small. It must be instilled into our children and grandchildren that life, human life, is more valuable than any other things we might treasure. The next generations will know that their fertility isn’t a problem, but a feature, and indeed a blessing from God who created them. 

In Christ, Rev. John Henry Koopman