PARENTING May 3, 2010 Issue

LISTENING TO OUR TRUE PARENT

ANDY ANDERSON

As a father of three, I've often thought about the nature of parental love. I have found that a parent's care is one of the strongest and most enduring expressions of human love.

In the Bible, we find a dramatic example of parental love in a story concerning King Solomon. The king was called upon to settle a dispute between two mothers who had just given birth (see I Kings 3:16–28). In the story, one of the babies died, and both women claimed to be the mother of the living child. After the king heard their testimony, his verdict was to cut the baby in half and give one half to each mother! One would expect emotional outbursts from both mothers after such a terrible statement. However, this did not happen.

The Biblical narrative continues: "Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, 'Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.' But the other said, 'He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him'" (I Kings 3:26, English Standard Version). The natural mother relinquished claim to her child in order to save his life, but the illegitimate mother agreed with Solomon's ruling. King Solomon ruled, rightly, that the child belonged to the mother who wished to save him.