A Fertile Race

Scripture References: Genesis 9:1, 7; Mark 6:3

No one can doubt our proclivity to procreation. On his world cruise, Magellan’s men found one Spice Islands sultan who had fathered 526 children. Another had sired 660. These figures surpassed Augustus the Strong of Saxony, Morrison wrote, who boasted only 364 bastards. Aristotle records that one Greek woman had 20 children in four births and that most of them survived. In Chile, South America, a lady had 53 children, 18 of whom were still at home. The 20 of them shared a two-room shack in a rural community north of Santiago. When asked why she had so many offspring, she explained. Abandoned as an infant and reared in a church orphanage, she had vowed to keep her children always and never to give them away.

The urge to parenthood remains irresistible, even among career women who once considered motherhood an unwanted relic. We may want fewer children, but few couples want to be childless. Begetting children is part of the God-built creator in us. Like him, we too want to share ourselves with someone like us.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved.