The Sin of the Father

While preparing for a Bible study and discussion of The Book of Job and the Problem of Suffering I was struck by these words from Gregory Schulz in his profound little book The Problem of Suffering – A Father’s Thoughts on the Suffering, Death, and Life of His Children:

There is nothing more terrifying than  seeing the wages of sin present in your own child. The terror lies in knowing (and I do mean “knowing” in the Hebrew sense of understanding by experience) that I as a father am the medium for the sin that brings my child’s death. […] “I certainly know how real my sin is.”

As a father, myself, who knows how real my own sin is, and that I am the medium for the sin that will bring my own children’s deaths, I am all the more amazed, saddened, and horrified that so many put off baptizing their children.

Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.