Letting the Little Ones Teach Me Hope
MATTHEW 18:2-5
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about what it is to live in this world as a child–to walk through these times as a little person still negotiating the rules and norms of modern behavior and the social mores (if there are any left).
This line of thinking has partly come about from raising my own children and watching and waiting for news of more school shootings and also that I am elbow deep in writing a young adult novel. To be in their heads in necessary. It is vital to my parenting, my writing, and if I’m honest, my sense of right and wrong in the world.
To kids, especially those in that tentative 8-10 age range, the world changes. It grow a little less innocent. Homework is harder, relationships are harder, the news on tv suddenly penetrates the kid thought-bubble. It’s the time when they begin to make their own way a little. I do not think any of this is a bad thing. It is necessary for the world to grow sharper and more defined and for them to grow stronger and more defined in it, like a shadow finally making itself known in the sunlight. It’s also a little terrifying from the parenting perspective. But if I keep to it from the kid’s-eye-view, then I see excitement in the change and so I will peep through that end of the telescope for now.
The brilliant thing about Jesus (one of the brilliant things) is that He understood the vital significance of a child’s ability to trust and learn and seek, above all else, alternate views to ordinary life. This is why Harry Potter is such a hit and Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time and all the bedtime stories. At what age do we grow out of needing a bedtime story?
C.S. Lewis, that great chronicler, said this in his collection of essays, On Stories:
It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one’s adult enjoyment of what are called “children’s books”. I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty…The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all.
And I know I shared this in my newsletter this week, but I’m going to put it here too, because it is just so true. John Green, one of the great modern channelers of young adult thought, said:
The world may be broken, but hope is not crazy.
This is true of both books and life. We need to hold on to the fundamental truths that are just as true at 65 as they were at six. I believe that Jesus wants us to grow wiser in the ways of the world, yes, but also to hold on to the magical bit of childhood that keeps us hoping and dreaming and trusting that good can win in the end. It’s a tricky business to let go of naiveté without growing cynical. But that’s what Jesus is for—to keep us curious and full of wonder for a world that STILL holds so much mystery and promise.
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A big thank you from Jamie on The Mom Gene!
