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Christianity Today, December, 2007 |

Blessed Are the Barren

The kingdom of God springs forth from the empty womb.

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson | posted 12/07/2007 09:21AM

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Barrenness inspires fear. How shall we live on when we are dead? We cannot hide our disbelief behind our children, or behind the inanimate children of fame and fortune and names spoken centuries into the future. We know, in a way biological parents do not, that our children are not our own.

And yet, in knowing that, our disbelief is exposed, and we are drawn back to faith again. We will live on after death because we will rise like Christ, the firstfruits and pioneer. We do not see the reality now. It is hidden from us. It is a promise to be fulfilled in the eschaton. To many the eschaton is far away. But my husband and I are living in it.

Blessed are the barren.

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is the pastor at St. John Lutheran Church in Trenton, New Jersey, and the editor of Lutheran Forum.

Related Elsewhere:

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson also wrote about learning to like Mary.

Our other articles on Advent and Christmas are available in our special section.

Raymond C. Van Leeuwen asked whether 'be fruitful and multiply' was a command, or a blessing.

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December 2007, Vol. 51, No. 12

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Rebecca

Posted: December 14, 2007 12:47 AM

Thank you for this article. It ministered to me. As an adoptive mother and as a barren woman I find that it speaks many of my own thoughts and feelings. I so appreciated Ms. Wilson's use of Scripture and her openness in sharing her heart. Rachel and Sarah cheated with servant girls in that they offered them to their husbands to conceive children. And I didn't see any implicaion in the article that Zachariah wasn't the biological father of John; on the contrary he and Elizabeth are mentioned as parents given a baby in old age. (Just felt like I had to say something about previous comments!) The pain of an empty womb doesn't go away even when you have wonderful adopted children that you love dearly. But it is a blessing to see how God can bring joy and good out of heartache. And to glimpse to a tiny degree the love of God for us, His adopted children.

TKS	Posted: December 13, 2007 1:18 PM


What utter Rot. Adoption involves many things, but it certainly doesn't involve dying to the "immortality of the bloodline". Our children are adopted, but we will live on in them. We are passing our beliefs, hopes, and traditions on to our children to pass on to the next generation. What a horribly morbid and disgusting view of adoption.

DEOR	Posted: December 12, 2007 9:43 AM

This article was a blessed word of the Lord for my life. As a woman in her thirties, still single and struggling with cronic endometriosis, barrenness is a very real, pressing situation. I thank God for the Spirit of adoption and the renewed hope this words have brought into my heart. And yes, it has also helped me to see adopting a child in a whole different light. It is beautiful to know that I have a place in the family of God.

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