Let the Little Children Come

Giving out glow sticks on Christmas night and talking
about what God gave for us.

Recently I had a little more insight into why people might tell little children to go away.  It seems so cold-hearted and almost exaggerated that the disciples would turn children away from Jesus in one of the most famous passages about young folks in the Bible.  But if you’ve read any children’s Bible stories, you see that Jesus has no problem snuggling with these bright, smiling, well-behaved whipper snappers, and surprises his disciples by telling them to let all the children come to him.  Maybe because of these pictures, I usually picture this scene much like a children’s sermon time at a Christmas service, with a lot of timid children sitting around listening to Jesus attentively.

But I’ve seen a different picture of what a crowd of children can be like in a culture closer to the one in which Jesus lived.  Almost every day we go outside our gate to play with the neighborhood children on the side road in front of our house.  Sometimes I have children mobbing me to get me to do one of my signature tricks of spinning them around or tossing them in the air.  What I’ve noticed is almost every time we come back inside, my shirt is covered in small dirty hand-prints or smears of food, dirt, or other mysterious liquids.  This alone, besides the mobbing, is probably enough to keep most adults from letting a crowd of kids get at them.  But there’s also a clear cultural sense that adults should be too busy and too concerned with other things to spend time playing with a group of kids.  There's no dads playing catch with kids in the yard or moms pushing children on their swings.  All this makes it more radical what Jesus did.  He makes time for the little ones who might not otherwise know their value, and isn't afraid to get messy because of them. 

As women walk down the street carrying food for the next meal, and men hurry to the mosque at prayer time, we feel somewhat self-conscious being the odd ones playing with kids.  But it also reminds us of why it's so important to be counter-cultural in how we follow Jesus.

-El Padre