Trusting God with your child’s wellbeing

Do you remember those first few hours when you arrived back home from hospital with your new baby?

It’s such a surreal yet special time. After the whirlwind of labour and the catalogue of tests immediately after the birth, it’s possibly the first moment of peace and quiet that you have to reflect on what’s just happened.

I (Scott) vividly remember sitting in our living room and looking at our new born baby. A myriad of thoughts went through my head: thankfulness that he seemed fit and healthy; astonishment that a human being could be so small and fragile; wonder at what the life that lay ahead of him may bring.

As these thoughts floated around in my foggy brain, a verse from a song came into my head.

It’s a song from my childhood – I’d probably not thought about it since then:

 

“How sweet to hold a newborn baby,

And feel the pride and joy he brings;

But greater still the calm assurance:

This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!”

 

Now in many ways it’s quite a sentimental, twee song – I see that. But in those emotionally-charged moments I found it quite moving and wonderfully reassuring.

I have no idea what will come along in our son’s life. It may be a relatively straightforward life, with no major upsets – he may breeze along like some people seem to. But equally, he may face uncertain days. Health issues, relational problems, pressures from wider society, job-insecurity – who knows?

Whatever comes along – even if what comes along results in Cathy and I not being there to support him – we can have the “calm assurance” that this song speaks of: “this child can face uncertain days because He lives.”

That’s not just a throwaway line. It’s a wonderful peace-bringing, worry-lifting, rock-solid-security. Jesus is alive! He reigns, he is sovereign and he is good.

Jesus already knows the valleys and the mountaintops that our son will traverse. Through it all he will be sovereign and in charge. Whatever life throws at our baby will not come as a surprise to Jesus, and he will be there as a reliable, living, kind stronghold.

What a wonderful calming assurance this brings. Our boy can face uncertain days because Jesus lives. Praise God!