Where Expectation Disappears

Originally posted on June 5, 2026 – by Andre Piet

Demographers are sounding the alarm. For years, the number of births has been far below the level needed to maintain the population. People now speak of a “baby crisis.” Housing shortages, economic uncertainty, psychological problems, and changing living conditions are mentioned as causes. But that only describes the surface.

Marriage and Family

The Bible teaches that God instituted marriage as a lifelong bond between man and woman. In it, He gave each one a distinct place. The man is the head of his wife and bears responsibility for her and for his family. This means that the man loves his wife, cares for her, and offers protection. The woman, in turn, receives a central place in her care for family and children. From this perspective, children are not a burden or an obstacle, but precisely a blessing!

These fundamental insights have all but entirely disappeared in Western society. Marriage has been reduced to a form of relationship that can be entered into and ended whenever one wishes. Men are no longer raised with the awareness that they bear responsibility for wife and family. Women are taught that their value lies primarily in economic independence and a social career. Motherhood is increasingly regarded as something subordinate to paid work.

The consequences are easy to guess. If marriage loses its security, forming a family becomes a risk. If men do not take their place, women cannot build on them. If children are viewed as an obstacle to personal ambitions, fewer will naturally be born. What is called a baby crisis today is therefore, in reality, a symptom of a world that has become disoriented.

When Expectation Disappears

There is something else as well. A society has children only when it has confidence in the future. Not for nothing do we speak of “expecting” a child. But when God disappears from view, what solid basis for expectation is still left? And because thinking lacks direction, life also becomes disrupted. Then God’s orderings are exchanged for human ideas, and the bitter fruits of that do not fail to appear. What we see today is not merely a demographic problem. It is a symptom of a society cut loose from God.

because, knowing God, not as God do they glorify or thank Him, but vain were they made in their reasonings, and darkened is their unintelligent heart.
-Romans 1:21-

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