SAVED THROUGH CHILDBEARING

Yet she will be saved through childbearing - if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. - 1 Timothy 2:15

I am not a theologian.

No, that's not right...we are all theologians, every single one of us.

What I mean is, I am not a theologian in the sense of someone who has learned Hebrew and Greek and who has studied for years at distinguished seminaries and who has multiple advanced degrees.

I was too busy learning nursery rhymes and relearning Algebra and studying how to feed and clothe an army of children...too busy to even think about higher education. (Would I be called a Mom-ologian, maybe? No, that's not right either.)

I am not going to try to exposit the above verse - what it does and does not mean for an individual woman, for women in general, for humanity, for the church. But I am going to say, with a very full and grateful heart...

I have known dark days when I have wondered exactly how fast I would need to drive into the concrete base of an overpass to put an end to my toil...but the thought of my children brought me safely home.

I have blindly drunk poison - ignorance, self-righteousness, bigotry, passivity, bitterness, despair - and my children have time and again dashed the cup from my hand.

I have had my heart broken so completely that I thought it incapable of loving anymore...only to have my children nurse my wounded heart, gently, patiently, until its faint pulse grew strong once more.

My children have taught me to see with new eyes, to hear with new ears, to love with greater passion, and to look ahead with more fervent hope.

They have made my sorrow small and my joy BIG and my heart very, very full.

Emily, Reuben, Nate, Tom, Ben, Martha, and Helen - thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thank you, Dennis and Justin and Abby and Carly.

Thank you, Geneva and Lizzy and Felix and Jules.

Thank you, Jesus, for the children - and through them, for the life - you have given me .