How do we adults hear Jesus calling us to become as little children? It’s one thing to talk about the command to practice radical hospitality to families, but in these days of Covid, that seems to be a moot point. But what about the idea he gave us of becoming as children ourselves?
I don’t think he meant that we should go
back to wearing diapers or to hitting each other when we are fighting over toys
or spending our days in sandboxes making castles. But I do think he wanted us to look at our attitudes
towards life. Children, especially the
preschoolers, aren’t interested in politics, they don’t have lofty ambitions,
and for the most part, they are open to new things. Watching a three-year old at the playground
with a parent is like watching a yoyo, they slowly go farther and farther from
the adult, and then run back to the safety of the adult. Maybe for a snack or a hug or just the
reassurance that they haven’t disappeared.
Then they move away a little further.
This will happen again and again as they balance their need for
independence and their curiosity with the security and safety of a grown-up
being nearby. They can also be very
creative. How many times have we heard
the story of a Christmas or birthday party with lots of presents where the best
toy is an empty box? I remember my
brother when he was two years old, loving climbing into the pots and pans
cupboard, closing the door and then bursting out with a ‘ta dah’! Surprise!
Mom had to take all the pots and pans out until he got tired of the
game. They can be incredibly courageous
too, oblivious to the consequences of their actions. My daughter at the same age watched her 5-year-old
brother navigate to the top of a very tall and rickety slide in a neighbor’s
back yard. I never thought she would try
to climb it, as the rungs were quite narrow and slippery. Turn my back for a moment, and the
three-year-old was at the top of the 5-foot ladder!
Curious, creative, courageous are just
some of the gifts of childhood that we may have lost as adults, but they are
something we can recapture, for both our own mental and physical health and
also the health of our institutions.
Kairos Canada sent us a prayer that
reminds us of the power of children:
The Great Spirit gave life in a circle, from childhood to
childhood. Our children are there to teach us and for us to teach them. Our
children were taken out of our Sacred Hoop and our hoop has been broken.
For decades we mourned the loss of our children. They never
completely returned home.
Even today, children are often missing. Stats Canada data from 2016 reports that of
the children in Alberta in foster care, 76% are indigenous. The circle is still broken. How do we support the calls for healing that
circle? Even here we can remember to be
curious, creative and courageous in asking questions of our church, our
province, our institutions that challenge not just what they do for children
but how they do it. From the new
education curriculum which has been condemned by parents, teachers and
professors alike for removing residential school history, to the upsurge of
cases of infections in children under the age of 12, we need to challenge our
politicians, our systems and our institutions .
Paul
wrote that our institutions need to be genuinely loving, and hospitable. Whatever we do should be looked at through
those two lenses. We are being called to
re-envision how our society must own up to the damage done to children
today. The times they are in abusive
situations, the times they are neglected, abused and bullied by both
individuals and systems. The times when
parents are not able to be there to help their children and the times when
parents are part of the problem, not the solution. The times when parents get angry that the
schools are rumored to be forcing children to get vaccinations, the times when
parents lose their children to easily preventable diseases like measles because
they refused to have their children vaccinated.
The times parents have had to hear their children’s’ surgeries have been
postponed, the times parents have had to help their children get educated at
home.
It is time to demand accountability from
the systems we have. When we write
letters to support our universities, when we wear orange t-shirts, when we put
out shoes to represent the thousands of children that never came home from
residential school, when we text our local town and county candidates, we are
challenging our institutions to live up to Jesus’ high standards.
Here in Athabasca United Church, we have
cared for the children in the community for a long time. There is an article in the town archives that
told about Nancy Applebee and Alice Donahue rolling up their sleeves in this
church’s basement to make sandwiches for the children’s school lunches before
lunch programs existed. This very
building was used as overflow classroom space when the Brick Schoolhouse had no
more room for the children. We helped
start the “Food for Thought” thanks to Cam Dierker, to make sure that high
school students never had to learn on an empty stomach. When Covid is over, we have plans for cooking
classes with the CAVE outreach school so that every junior high and senior high
student will graduate with basic food literacy and nutrition skills, and our
cooking circle program is targeted to low income moms who struggle to stretch
their food dollars to feed their little ones.
What more can we do? Keep texting, keep writing letters, keep hoping and praying for the children in foster care, and keep loving hospitality at the core of everything we do. When we do that, and keep having courageous, curious and creative conversations with our friends and neighbors, we will inspire, empower and engage our community to truly welcome these little ones into the circle of God’s love. May it be so for us all!
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