Our Lord's heart is closest to little children threatened by environments of fear, neglect and violence. Our Lord suffers in knowing that many children will receive no other love than his own in this world.
For children, as a category, stand apart from the political brokers of education, wealth and power. Devoid of these things by which others protect themselves from predatory forces in society, children are utterly dependent on the philanthropy of others and, accordingly, they are ruined and destroyed by predatory forces when leaders and their institutions pander to a lethargic citizenry with showy words and cleverly crafted mediocrity.
Ours is a generation that prefers chatter to conversation and argument over reason. Endless talk is a sign of synthetic concern, the detritus of intellectual and moral sterility. The opportunity to talk endlessly on a given subject is highly valued. Not surprisingly, the intoxicating heat of debate is often equated with the fire of brilliance and the conscientious, arduous labor of actualizing a heroic vision.
Showy words are valued most highly by the society "who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth". [2Tim 3:7] Like mold and mildew, rampant grandiloquence flourishes when a society attempts to conceal its torpor and dampness of spirit. Neither words or show masks the obscene desertion of an educated electorate from the field of genuine child advocacy, however, or its rejection of reality informed by absolute truth.
If, as a condition of our nation's response to the pressing plight of the young, we must accord all opposing viewpoints the same weight, we will have done nothing more than entomb our suffering children under a burial mound of ritualized blather. The injustice of a society which loves talk more than its children will not escape the notice of the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
Who will sacrifice himself to love me always? asks the child who is sacrificed. Who will love me as a person always? asks the child who is treated as an object. Who will never lie to me? asks the child who is double-crossed. Who will never leave me? asks the child who is abandoned. Who can I trust always? asks the child who is betrayed.
Even as Christians feel sorrow and shame for the plight of very many of our nation's children, we hear the echo of Joshua's bold challenge to an earlier generation of Israelites: "Choose this day whom you will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." [Josh 24:15] The premier question is not what the world's nations (and our own in particular) will choose, but ultimately whom they will choose. And the whom we must choose is Jesus Christ!
For the sake of the name we bear--children of God--we must plead, we must sacrifice, we must suffer on behalf of our children. The virtue of justice is not an invitation to passivity. As the experience of Christian parents testifies, any effort to meet the needs of our children depends on universally shared Gospel values.
Our love of God's little children is proven by advocacy; therefore, "whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus". [Col 3:17]
(photo courtesy ookaboo)
(photo courtesy ookaboo)
