SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, NAPPIES AND NIGHTMARES
Married or single, we're all called to be parents.

God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! (Genesis 1:27-28, The Message)

Having children makes us human.

Is this insensitive, even shocking? What about single people or childless couples? Read on - there's more to this than meets the eye.

Start at the beginning: God created human beings "in His own image" and blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful!" (Genesis 1:27-28). Humans reflect God. Key to this is the drive to have children in their own "image and likeness" (see Genesis 5:3).

In the Old Testament barrenness was seen as a terrible evil. Think of the agony of a Sarah or a Hannah. Having children was seen as a God-given, human blessing; children are "from the Lord," as the psalmist sang (Psalm 127:3).

But something changes with the coming of an unmarried prophet, John, who prepared the way for an unmarried Messiah, Jesus, who was preached to the nations by an unmarried apostle, Paul. In the New Testament, family life is honoured but alongside it comes a new call: to remain single out of "undivided devotion to the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:35).

Yet the call to have offspring is as important as ever. "Undivided devotion" is not a sterile, inhuman way of life; it is a call to greater freedom to "make disciples" (Matthew 28:19). Those we lead to Jesus and nurture in their faith become our spiritual children.

Many parents speak of the awesome moment when they first hold their child. A truly human moment - as are the sleepless nights, nappies and nightmares which follow!

Having children makes us human.

The New Testament broadens and deepens this call to humanising, loving, patient parenthood to include the vital ministry of parenting spiritual children.

Jesus addressed His followers as "children" (Mark 10:24); with the same warm, renewed humanity John writes to his "dear children" (1 John 2:1); Peter has his "son" Mark (1 Peter 5:13); Paul describes Timothy with paternal pride "because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel" (Philippians 2:22).

All - married or single, with natural children or without - are called to the heart-stretching, human task of having spiritual children. It takes patience. It takes love. It's humbling and means shedding many tears. It's wonderful.

Having spiritual children makes us - newly and truly - human.