The Little Lady Lives Here
A lady lives here. A little one she is, but still a lady. Let us refer to her as the Little Lady. And the Little Lady has taken up residence with us, her presence adorning our home with the special grace that only a little lady the likes of her can offer.
I never reared children, so my impression was that the rearing and nurturing of little ones was consuming of time, energy and attention but, if they were one's own, it was well worth such expenditure.
I own that the little lady is well worth it! Amber brings a personality singular in its capacity to enchant and to be enchanted, to laugh and to be a source of laughter, and, most importantly, to love and to be loved.
She tells me, usually once per day, I love you, Pop-Pop, thereby making a profound contribution to the making of my day.
I tell her that she is a mimic when she imitates my gestures, to which she replies with a firm, No, I'm not a mimic then, after an affectionate give-and-take, You're a mimic, Pop-Pop!
Her signature contribution comes in the form of a continuous query: What are you doing? The question lends itself both to playful and serious banter, as in the following exchange: What are you doing, Pop-Pop? I'm having my lunch with Amber; what are you doing? I'm having my lunch with Pop-Pop.
(If you can't ascertain as of yet why I am hooked on the little one I don't suppose you'll ever understand, poor thing!)
Feelings and thoughts come fast and furious in the wake of her presence. I now know what my mother meant when she commented that she would have walked barefooted over burning coals for my brother and me. She meant it and I knew it.
My problem is that my imagination runs amuck with fearful thoughts of someone trying to hurt Amber. The narrative within my mind isn't pretty insofar as what I would be wont to do in defense of the little one; I must ask God to cleanse my soul of such fears and impurities of thought.
Then I think about the little ones who are daily victimized. Did you know that roughly 60% of persecuted Christians are children under the age of twelve? Can you fathom it?
Several Christian villages in Nigeria were recently attacked during the night by radical Muslims; the preponderance of the slaughtered victims was women and children. It defies belief.
A dear friend oversees a ministry in Chiang Mai, Thailand for young girls who have come out of enforced sex trafficking and domestic servitude. What kind of men would lend themselves to such depraved behavior? I don' want to know.
Contemporary western culture has given over the nurture of its children to the forces of promiscuity and permissiveness, all in the interests of human happiness and self-fulfillment. It is subservience to Moloch cloaked in modern civilities.
And the travesty perpetrated upon the unborn continues under cover of law. It grieves me to note that within its first week in office the White House released heretofore blocked monies to fund abortions overseas. Christians, take note!
We have been entrusted with the care of little ones, and not simply our own, but also those who belong to Jesus. The promotion of family values can often be just as much an instrument of selfishness as of godliness if we forget His children.
Jesus observed that evil men give good gifts to their children (Matthew 7:11) and instructed His followers to encourage and not obstruct children from His Presence: Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." "And he took the children in his arms, put his hand on them and blessed them." (Mark 10:14-16).
I am brought full circle back to Amber. I love it when she sits on my lap, which she is wont to do, especially after those aforementioned luncheons. It seems to be as much a part of the package for her as the ice cream she loves for dessert.
I once told her while she sat on my lap that Jesus loved her. No, she replied, Pop-Pop does. But Jesus loves you too, I quickly replied, but she countered, No, Pop-Pop loves me!
I do, but so does He, in ways that we discern she actually does recognize. She has been quite sensitive to God's Presence since she was an infant. She could not conceptualize (as it is hard for me to articulate), but she instinctively knows.
She has always loved to worship. She loves songs of praise, and sings with hands both uplifted and reverent. The other Sunday she was literally belting out the doxology during service. Her voice rose above the din of the rest.
Scripture foresees a day when "The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11:6). Adult Christians: Take notice and be led!
Oswald Chambers noted the splendid audacity the childlike child has! It is faith implicitly trusting and explicitly obeying as it is grounded in love. Said Paul: "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Galatians 5:6).
Trusting and obeying are twin expressions of faith. Children should obey their parents, but parents shouldn't exasperate their children (Ephesians 6:1, 4). The latter gives an instinctive credence to the former. Love is the shared rationale.
It is in the best interests of our children - and of our love for them - to nurture them in the love of Jesus. Who better to whom to introduce them than Jesus, who loves them better than any other? No rock star or athlete would, that's for sure!
I fear that we too often communicate to our children that Jesus is not important enough for them to ever consider Him as a prospective first love. It is an unwitting communication, but damnably effective in its debilitating effects.
We want them to know how special they are, how much we love them, how much they are deserving of the best in life; fair enough (at least insofar as the first two); still, it must also be remembered that our little ones, however much they are cherished and however adorable are still, like everyone else, made of fallen stuff.
Irish novelist Iris Murdoch issued the dictum in her novel A Time for Angels that if we raise our children to think that they are angels they will turn out to be more like demons. Even children need to be sober in their self-assessments.
But also anticipatory in their God, of whom they have an instinctive awareness. Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles wrote a fascinating book entitled The Spiritual Life of Children, in which he documents the connectedness children have of God.
He tells the story, for instance, of two little Irish girls who were viscerally moved by the story of Jesus' crucifixion. A glass of water in front of them served to accentuate their sensitivity to Jesus' suffering even as it stoked their physical thirst.
All the more reason we need to take both the cue and assurance of Scripture: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6)." He (or she) should go to God. We must direct them.
Amber asked me what Mom-Mom was doing. Mom-Mom, I replied, is making our lunch and how blessed we are that she makes our breakfast and lunch every day. And our toast she emphatically replied. Yes, you lovely little lassie, and our toast!
A toast to you and all little ones just like you who are God's precious gifts to us. May you always know that Jesus loves you very, very much!
Bradley E. Lacey
July 9, 2010