“I will wait on the Lord … I will hope in Him. Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the Lord of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion.” (Isaiah 8:17–18 NKJV)
As a mom, I often find myself thinking of my children as a crowd of people instead of as individuals. It is so easy to group the children together, assuming them to be a force for evil (“Those kids are up to it again!”) rather than see them as individuals with strengths that God is developing to His glory to witness to and serve the world.
Amidst the terror and destruction of the land, Isaiah boldly confesses, at God’s command, that he and his children are signs and symbols to the world of the Lord’s goodness and mercy. As Christian families, we are also God’s witnesses to the world of Who Christ is and what He means. 1 John 4 drives this point home, encouraging followers of Jesus to be bold in abundant love to the unrighteous.
God sees every sin of every individual, both repentant and unrepentant, desiring that all come to the knowledge of the truth. He sees your children as forgiven individuals, created for a special purpose in this world. He forgives you for grouping kids together for mere convenience and often attributing to them sinful intentions rather than childish curiosities. And even if the world may choose to reject the signs and wonders of your family in its midst, He prepares you all to be witnesses to His love.
Our hearts let new-created be,
Our walk make pure and holy.
Help us offense and sin to flee,
And ever serve God solely,
So that our faith in Christ, our Lord,
May prove itself in deed and word
Before the world about us.
(Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary 26:3)
Mrs. Marie K. MacPherson lives in Mankato, Minnesota, with her husband, Ryan, and their six children whom she homeschools. She is author of The Story of Baby Shalom and Meditations on the Vocation of Motherhood (2018), editor of Mothering Many: Sanity-Saving Strategies from Moms of Four or More (2016), and a certified classical Lutheran educator from the Consortium of Classical Lutheran Educators (CCLE).