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Yet here is a strange thing: When my friends pack their suitcases and head back in cars or airplanes to their homes, they do not regret what they have just endured. The glimpse of wonder in their children who watch fox kits peeking out of their den across the ravine, the momentary lapse from teenage sulkiness when their son scrambles to the top of a mountain and lifts his hands Rocky-style in the air, the cuddle of a 10-year-old body against their own at the end of an exhausting day outdoors—these memories displace the frustration. They have seen progress toward maturity, confidence, and independence. What else is the reward of parenthood?

Another Christianity Today article that discusses ways God parents us is " The Pursuing Father " (Oct. 5, 1998).

Read a biographical sketch of Jean Vanier , founder of L'Arche homes for the disabled, or a transcript of a Vanier interview about images of love .

Read about the life of poet Robert Browning , or read Browning's " A Death in the Desert ", the poem Yancey quotes above.

Christian Parenting Today , a sister publication of Christianity Today, frequently runs parenting advice from a biblical perspective.

Earlier Philip Yancey columns include:

Lessons from Rock Bottom (July 10, 2000)

Chess Master (May 15, 2000)

Would Jesus Worship Here? (Feb.7, 2000)

Doctor's Orders (Dec. 2, 1999)

Getting to Know Me (Oct. 25,1999)

The Encyclopedia of Theological Ignorance (Sept. 6, 1999)

Writing the Trinity (July 12, 1999)

Can Good Come Out of This Evil? (June 14, 1999)

The Last Deist (Apr. 5, 1999)

Why I Can Feel Your Pain (Feb. 8, 1999)

What The Prince of Egypt Won't Tell You (Dec. 7, 1998)

What's a Heaven For? (Oct. 26,1998)

The Fox and the Writer (Sept. 7,1998)

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September 4 2000, Vol. 44, No. 10