The Tutor of Prophets, Priests, and Kings

I've been thinking a lot lately about the implications of my children's baptisms.  Some of the symbolism folded into the New Testament baptism from the Old Testament is the anointing of prophets, priests, and kings.  My children are born into a people where every single individual bears each title.  Just as the Old Testament priests were commanded to consecrate, or set apart from common service, the items of the temple to service to God by sprinkling them ceremonially, so our children, when they are born into the holy people of God, are sprinkled and consecrated to the service of the Lord.

Our children are not for common use.  They are not meant to please themselves or live a life mindless of duty and privilege.  Just as the son of a king is raised differently than a son of a peasant, so our children are raised with the duties God's consecration entails.  I should be raising each child with their special calling in mind.  This idea has been transforming and shaping my approach to parenting. 

So I was very interested when our Heidelberg catechism reading this morning said this:

31.    Why is He called “Christ,” that is, Anointed?
Because He is ordained of God the Father and anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief Prophet and Teacher, who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption; and our only High Priest, who by the one sacrifice of His body, has redeemed us, and ever lives to make intercession for us with the Father; and our eternal King, who governs us by His Word and Spirit, and defends and preserves us in the redemption obtained for us.

32.    But why are you called a Christian?
Because by faith I am a member of Christ and thus a partaker of His anointing, in order that I also may confess His Name, may present myself a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him, and with a free conscience may fight against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter in eternity reign with Him over all creatures.

Notice that we partake of  Christ's anointing as prophets, priests, and kings.  Question 32 teaches us that we act as prophets when we confess Christ's name, proclaiming God's Word as the Old Testament prophets did.  We act in our priestly function when we present ourselves living sacrifices of thankfulness, and we exercise our kingly duties when we fight against the power of sin and the devil, preparing for our eternal reign with Christ.

Every important office is preceded by preparation.  The father of a child destined for a great office would be remiss in not preparing his child for his duties.  My children were not given to serve me, to raise my importance or validate my existence, but they were given to me to serve them.  It was a high honor to be the tutor of a future king, but one with great responsibility.

Yet I feel so inadequate to fulfill such a function. How do I give my children what I do not possess myself?  How do I train them in self-control fitting a son of the King?  How do I train them in the pure devotion to our holy God that our priesthood calls us to?  How do I train them in the knowledge of the God-who-is to the level necessary to be a prophet of the Most High God?  And then I remember one of those powerful insights that good fiction provides:  A father, observing his grown son and contemplating his many failings in the boy's childhood, reflected inwardly, "I am not what he needed me to be." 

And that's when my hope turns away from myself and to the Father who is what my children need Him to be.  I will train these children as well as this fallen, weak sinner can because God has given me the great privilege, but I am so thankful that there is Another who is sufficient, and it is He to whom I must turn the hope of my children.