To My Child: Born Into a Sinful World

Way back in late March or early April when the year 2020 took a nose dive, I skimmed an editorial entitled “To My Child: Born During Coronavirus and Climate Change”. Honestly, I had no intention of even glancing at something with such a title, figuring the guy didn’t at all share my views on either subject. However, it kept coming up on my phone’s news feed until I finally decided it might be worth a glance.

I’ll confess I mostly skimmed it. It didn’t take a paragraph to realize we did not share the same view on his subject and also didn’t have anything new to say on the matter. Not completely surprising, he felt climate change would damage his new son’s life more than any virus would. Quite surprisingly, he referenced his grandmother quite a bit. Obviously he had loved and respected her greatly, but he didn’t at all agree with her Biblical view of creation. Which is sad, but his grandmother should be applauded for at least planting the seeds.

However, the article made me think. What would I say to the child in my womb about the world she was about to be born in? Fast forward two months when Ellyson was born and the title would be more like “To My Child: Born During Covid, Black Lives Matter Protests, Gay Pride Month and Climate Change”. Or, to put in more succinctly: “To My Child: Born to a World Going to Hell”.

But that’s the reality of the world. One hundred years ago, children were born in the midst of the Spanish influenza and World War I (when my grandfather was born). A mere twelve years after that, when my other grandparents would soon be born, children arrived in the midst of Great Depression and Dust Bowl. A decade later, it was World War II. Fifteen years after that, children went through nuclear bomb raid drills at school and Martin Luther King, Jr. fanned the flames of civil unrest. That wasn’t even over when Vietnam hit and people took to the streets burning flags and protesting just about everything they didn’t like at the moment. There is nothing new under the sun. It doesn’t matter when you are born. Somewhere there is a war. Somewhere there is a virus. Somewhere there is civil unrest. Why? Because we live in a world full of sin.

Here is what I will tell my daughter: When sin entered the world, the world went to hell. We get sick. We don’t get along with our neighbors. And all of creation groans in travail. As long as earth exists, nothing is going to change that. We can live good lives, and we can help lots of people; but we cannot make the world peaceful again. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. And while He will give you peace, and joy, and hope on earth; there will also be wars, and sickness, and trials. Because we are sinners and we live in a sinful world. And because this world is fleeting. Christ will return, and He will create a new heaven and a new earth. And then – finally! – wars will cease, sickness will disappear, and true peace will ensue.

Yes, I wish I could give each of my children a better world, but I can’t. So, I will point them to the Only One who can.