2\u00a0<\/sup>He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>And he said:\u00a0\u201cTruly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children,\u00a0you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve 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).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This line of thinking has partly come about from raising my own children and watching and waiting for news of more school shootings\u00a0and 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\u2019m honest, my sense of right and wrong in the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s also a little terrifying from the parenting perspective. But if I keep to it from the kid\u2019s-eye-view, then I see excitement in the change and so I will peep through that end of the telescope for now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The brilliant thing about Jesus (one of the brilliant things) is that He understood the vital significance of a child\u2019s ability to trust and learn and seek, above all else, alternate views to ordinary life. This is why Harry Potter<\/em> is such a hit and Bridge to Terabithia<\/em> and A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> and all the bedtime stories. At what age do we grow out of needing a bedtime story?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n C.S. Lewis, that great chronicler, said this in his collection of essays, On Stories<\/em>:<\/p>\n It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one\u2019s adult enjoyment of what are called \u201cchildren\u2019s books\u201d. 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\u2026The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fairytalebook-2929646_1920.jpg?resize=646%2C379\")
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