In the vein of Jonny's recent post from the Bill Viola exhibition, someone sent me this recently.
It certainly made me smile - and wonder.
What would I write now? What did I write - or think - as a child? Does God know everything about me, what I think, what I'm like, where I'm at? Does this make out that God is a bit like Santa - 'making his list, checking it twice'? 'He knows when we've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake'? Although it's comforting to think that petitions like these are heard, what do we make of the times when we ask for something and God seems resolutely silent in response?
Jesus Christ, whom some call the son of God, born into a poor family in first century Palestine, said:
"I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom." (Book of Matthew, chapter 18, The Bible)
He seemed to have a lot of time for children, once telling people not to prevent them from approaching him, by saying:
"Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these." (Book of Matthew, chapter 19, The Bible)
His concern seems to be, as Robert Farrah Capon puts it, with the last, the least, the lost, the little and the dead (what we might think of as the elderly, the children, the sick, the thrown away, the forgotten, the dirty, the marginalised, and more) - in short, those that his culture shunned.
If so, maybe these kids haven't got it so wrong after all?...
Comments