How are children a blessing from the Lord?

Psalm 127 was one of a series of psalms pilgrims would recite as they walked up the long road to Jerusalem. Families would recite it together as they walked hand in hand up the steep hill. Psalm 127:3 says children are a gift, an inheritance, a heritage from the Lord. Using this term, Solomon affirms the ancient Near East belief that children are God’s blessing to parents. The Bible identifies children as a gift from the Lord because children demonstrate unique character traits God desires in his kingdom followers.

Children are humble and unassuming: Jesus said that the humility of children should be our example for how to live. In fact, this level of humility can make someone the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3–4).

Children are unafraid: Jesus loved children, and they weren’t afraid to approach him. Children have an intuitive way of knowing which adults like them and want them around and which ones do not. When the children surrounded Jesus, some adults sent them away, but Jesus urged them to come to him and told the adults to do the same (Mark 10:14–15).

Children are unimpressed by rank or status: When the disciples were disputing who among them was the favorite or had the most authority, Jesus rebuked them by saying greatness belongs to the youngest and the servant rather than the leader and those who we typically see as holding a higher rank (Luke 22:26).

Children need nourishment: This statement may seem oddly out of place in a devotion about children being a blessing. Everyone knows a child needs food. But the Bible uses this fact to admonish adults to long for spiritual milk as if they were infants (1 Peter 2:2). When a child is hungry, nothing will stand in their way. We need that same drive, intention, and sense of urgency to follow God and find him in his Word. Nothing can replace nourishment. Equally, nothing feeds our spirit like being filled with his Word.

God uses children and family to bring joy and blessing—a gift—that nothing else provides. When they seem like an inconvenience or at their most annoying moment, look at your child and tell them, “You are a gift from God to me! I love you like Jesus.”