Psalm 127. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. " Those who rise early and go to bed late, working all day without putting God first, eat "the bread of anxious toil;" while God gives sleep to his beloved. Sons are our heritage, children are a blessing from God that will sustain and protect us.

In this short psalm we see the absolute folly and meaninglessness of life without God. We can build our homes, guard our cities, "plan" our parenthood, and it is all in vain if we do not have God. All of our labors will come to nothing, in the end, while those who have put God first in all things sleep soundly, without anxiety, and are showered with blessings.

The two stanzas of this psalm don't seem to flow, at first - the first one is about all our work being anxious, meaningless toil without God, and the second is about the blessings of children - they are like "arrows in the hand of a warrior." But when we look on them as both speaking to our sense of control, they make sense together. We want to control things. We convince ourselves that we can build the best houses, and cities, and we can and should plan our families, waiting for the right time to have children. It is nonsense - how could we possibly know the right time to have children? We can build and plan away, and it will all come to nothing if it is not what God wanted for us. He and only he knows what is best for us and the world - we have to trust him to bring it about and rejoice in the blessings, like children, that he showers upon us!

We have no future without our children, the world has no future without them (and the world birth rate is falling to levels never seen before, as we foolishly exert our "control" and "planning"). Children are the gifts of our participation in God's creation, but they are God's creation, not ours. If God has chosen to build his world through them, we are countering him when we try to plan our families.

We also have no future without God. Our carefully planned houses, cities, and families will come to nothing in the end if God is not at their center.