ESSAY

The Mind Of A Child

How do we maintain what we once had in abundance?

Jesus talked about children in a way that was entirely radical for the time. Culture didn’t worship and protect them like we do now. Life was more precarious. It was more like baby turtles where you figure half of them are never going to make it. No reason to get too attached to them until you were relatively sure they were going to make it.

In the animal kingdom, it’s the leaders, the alpha males, who are protected, not the babies. The fawn ventures out into the field to nibble on grass, and if no one shoots it or rips its throat out, the mom comes out. Eventually, when it seems safe enough, dad will come out and get something to eat himself.

This was pretty much the world when Jesus told his followers that children were valuable. He told the people around him to let the little children come unto him. He told his disciples that they needed to emulate children, not because children were considered innocent or pure, but because it was universally understood that they had no value of their own.

Still, I can’t help but believe that children love more simply, more fully and without reservation and might have more purely understood an offering of grace, and would therefore be more receptive of such an offering.