Intentionality

Yesterday the wife of one of a distant younger relatives gave birth to their first child together. Announcements were made. Names were chosen. The father thanked God. All very nice. The only thing was that this baby was conceived before the couple married and done so intentionally. So the father, a professed Christian, thanked God while poking Him in the eye. "I did it my way." There are two common tendencies here. One would be rejection. "I'm not happy about this baby because I'm not happy about the sin." The other would be compromise. "I've always thought that fornication was sin, but if it produces a lovely child (especially from someone I know and love), well, then, maybe it's not." Both responses would be wrong.

Consider. This child, through no fault of her own, is the product of fornication, but she could not have even been conceived if the Maker of all didn't approve it. The miracle of conception and birth is not really a miracle -- a supernatural interference in natural law to demonstrate God -- but it is miraculous. If it is true that "Because of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things" (Rom 11:36), then this baby born out of sin is also a baby born out of God's design.

Once again, then, we circle around to one of my favorite themes: "You intended evil, but God intended good" (Gen 50:20). I live on that theme. I thrive on it. I don't have to say, "Their fornication was a good thing." Nor do I have to say, "Their daughter, as a product of their fornication, is a bad thing." I can call sin sin and call the results of sin that which God works together for good, so she is a blessing, a result of God's good intentions. And I rejoice that God can make use of our sin to produce good, that He can make use of this child to glorify Himself. I hope I get to see how.