Stork

Most references to “love” in the New Testament use one of two Greek nouns — agapao or phileo.  (Hide the children!  Hal’s faking a knowledge of Greek again!)  But there is another Greek word included in the compound word astorge, which is usually translated “unloving.”  The root storge is generally defined as “family love,” that which exists (or does not exist, in the case of references to astorge in Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3) between parents and children.

This root may be an explanation for the strange but pervasive myth of a stork bringing newborn babies to parents.  Or maybe not.  Who knows?  Who but me cares?

In any event, a new birth stirs instinctive and emotional connections in the parent as well as the child.  It would seem to be a natural, undeniable, inescapable thing.  Tragically, it is not.  We occasionally hear horror stories of mothers abandoning children after delivery.  Just last week a 21-year-old sorority girl was found guilty of literally putting her newborn daughter in a plastic bag and throwing her in the trash.  And these stories seem to be more common every year.

Personally, I blame abortion.  We’re being trained to think of babies being a burden rather than a blessing, and to minimize the consequences of all our bad choices.  And so here we are — a society without natural affection.

The cure is as obvious as it is hard.  Turn an entire culture toward God.  Read Jeremiah, and Hosea, and Zephaniah, and all the other passages in the Bible that warn rebellious people of judgment to come.  And it will come, even surer than the stork.