Thursday, July 20, 2006

A Baby


You know, it’s amazing to think that a little baby came to save us all.

It’s amazing to reflect on the power to conquer the grave that was packed into that small child.

It’s absolutely amazing to think that a cry never came from Christ’s mouth when He was an infant. Such trust and self-sacrifice he showed as even just a tiny baby.

I wonder so much about His childhood in light of his display of self-sacrifice in his first encounters in the world. You know, like kids are so selfish these days. There are a few families, in comparison to the millions, that are sincerely teaching their children that “it’s not all about them” and it’s good to take care of others first, not just taking care of them after you have gotten your fill. But so many children never receive that message of self-sacrifice. I wonder if that’s why later in life it is so much harder to accept Christ. After a lifetime of learning that you are to be “the best” and that you are to fight for your own benefits, it’s really hard to think of willingly giving your opportunities to another when there doesn’t seem to be more opportunities being handed out. I wonder if that’s one of the reasons why it’s so easy for people to harden their hearts to Christ. I wonder how we can break that cycle. What things could I think of to expose even my little Kindergarten class to that would allow them to see that it is our job as Christians to serve others before ourselves? It’s so funny to think that while I could come up with a long list of places I’d love to take my Kindergarteners there would be an equally long list of “dangers” that would forbid us from going. Woe to the constraints of fear. And I long so desperately to tell these supervisors and these parents that we cannot live our life in fear. Some things are worth doing for Christ. And yet, then I realize that some of these parents are the very ones that have hardened their hearts to Christ. It’s such a vicious cycle to break.

One little girl made a table of some sort at art yesterday in my Kindergarten class. She glued some match boxes to a purple plastic lid and then glued a popsicle stick to the top of the lid to make some kind of a handle for the table. “I have to pretend because Daddy doesn’t like to hear about Jesus things” she explained to me. “What do you have to pretend for?” I asked her. “Well, it’s an altar table.” She explained “and Daddy’s family didn’t raise him to love Jesus so he doesn’t like to hear about it and I could get in trouble. I asked him if he’d think about loving Jesus again. He said n-o-p-e spells nope.” “Do you love Jesus?” I asked her “Yes. I love Jesus.” She said with sincerity as she put her art supplies away and moved to a different station.




It’s such a vicious cycle to break.



And it’s just so amazing how much Jesus clashed with the world even as a little baby.

… Such faith that we are called to imitate.

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