Jesus said that one must have the faith of a child to see the Kingdom of Heaven. Elsewhere the Bible teaches that a ‘child shall lead them…’ What has the counter-everything culture of the 21st Century done to the minds of children and how they perceive things, including the basic truths of scripture?
I had a very interesting talk with one of my granddaughters, age 9 who recently professed her faith in Christ. She is sharp, as sharp as they come. Incredible for a progeny of mine! Thankfully there were others who donated genes that off-set some of mine! She has the ability to see some of the strangeness of this brave new world of ours and can be quick to realize there is a great deal of hypocrisy particularly in what she hears about politics and government. At age 9, to her, some things just “Don’t make sense!” Perhaps age 9 should be the only voting age…
We were out camping a few days ago and I began to share with her about how Christ, Father God and the indwelling Holy Spirit knows our thoughts and words before we ever think them or say them. This wasn’t a scare her into being ‘good’ kind of talk but a reassurance that when she feels alone, she never is. Jesus is always there with her. The Bible, I shared, talks about how there is no place we can go to hide from his presence. We even looked up the total earth population and we talked about how God loves every single one and knows and cares about what is going on in each of those lives.
As I shared about how God is always with us, no matter where we go, she made an amazing observation… “If Jesus were on earth today and it was known he could do that, someone would accuse him of stalking!”
Tell me that isn’t true! You know that it is! Forget the reassurance of his comforting and guiding presence, find a way to keep Christ out by accusing him of having the evilest of intentions. Twist about what Jesus does to keep us and protect us and make him the villain of the drama of our lives. Does that not sound like the 21st century thus far? You know that it does.
Such begs the question, what are we to do about it? Recently I read a quote from a newspaper columnist. He said to the effect, ‘those who want to share their religious views with you seldom want to hear yours.’ Sad but true. Christians, Evangelicals are swept up (some of them) in sharing the Gospel, as well they should be but sharing requires communicating and communicating involves listening. Maybe before we give them our five verses, a short testimony and the example of faith is sitting in a chair… we should take time to listen, really listen. We need to get to know people to know what they are about, how they are hurting and maybe, just maybe, how we can help. Once they know we really do care, then perhaps they will want to hear why we have hope in a world full of hopelessness.
I love spending time with my grandchildren. I learn so much!
Doc Riggs' Ministry Minute 