The tag on my blow dryer’s cord reads: KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN. I burst out laughing when I noticed it.
…Seventeen months of life behind her. About knee high. Little Lois greeted me at the door of her home this morning, both arms raised. Still in her jammies, runny nose, cereal schmucked all over her face, and a string of blonde bangs stuck tight to her forehead by God knows what. Glue? Cereal? Or the other, self-manufactured stuff?
No matter. I knew what this was about. A hold-up. A pickup. No matter the state of her face or her nose, and despite the fact that I wore business clothes and needed to complete my commute to work, the tyke wanted a hug from her Nana. I complied, willingly.
Every single time I hug or pick up one of my five (almost six) grandbeans or see them running my way, arms outstretched, sunshine on their faces, my heart fills with wonder. When my own children were small, I felt the same. Lord, what did I do to deserve this?
I know the answer. We don’t deserve them. Children are a gift from God. Period. But he sends them with a care manual and vital instructions: LOVE THEM. TRAIN THEM. LOVE THEM. FEED THEM. LOVE THEM.
As a teenager shopping in downtown Vancouver one day, I overheard a statement that seared me for life. My sister and I, halfway up Eaton’s escalator, noticed a sibling set carrying an adorable basketful of very tiny kittens. A nearby woman noticed them too. Disgust dripping from every syllable, she spat out, “Cats and dogs and kids! They should all be lined up and shot.”
At work today my huge-hearted colleague stood in shock beside her desk after hearing about the murder of an entire family, including three children. “HOW CAN PEOPLE KILL CHILDREN?” she cried.
Her words brought me back to my son-in-law’s sermon on Sunday, based on the prophetic words in Malachi, the final book in the Old Testament. It holds God’s timeless message of judgement on a people who had forgotten God.
The book ends with a note of hope; a promise to send a Saviour who would, if people would follow him, “turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents.” However, like most parents, our Heavenly Father adds an “or else” to his warning; a chilling one, considering the broken state of our world. “…Or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
“Do you love children?” Pastor Kendall asked. “Do you love children?”
According to the Bible, the canary in the mine when it comes to judging the health of a nation is simply this: “Do we love children? Enough to cherish them? Feed them? Train them?”
Keep away from children? God forbid. Without them, we don’t stand a chance of survival. For all our sakes, let’s choose to love.
