My 5 year old reads a chapter from the Bible each night before bed. She may not be able to pronounce every name/word correctly, and she may not see all of the deep truths yet, but she can tell me about what she had read after she finishes. The repetition of the begats in Matthew 1 was not fun, but she respected every line, every words, not adding to or subtracting from what was written.
She is many nights amazed, asking things like, “We’re really supposed to turn the other cheek?” To which I get to explain that it is the hurting people, the lost, the hopeless, the angry that are the bullies in life because they need love. They need it so badly but don’t know how to cry out for it in a profitable and useful way. So it comes out of them in pain and hurt shoved onto others because it is overflowing their lives and they don’t know what to do about it. I explain that we can share a seed of love with them so they might taste its sweetness in comparison to the bitter taste that other way leaves in their heart, and that we can tell them that this is the bread that we get from Jesus so we can share it with the world. I share that we hope that many might choose to start following Jesus too and reading His Word so that He can sow those new seeds of love into their life as well.
And some nights like last night, as she read the explanation of the parable of the sower, she asked, “But we’re not the ones that hear it and have it stolen away, are we?” She asked this with fear and concern in her eyes, truly needing to know if that enemy could steal away this precious Word of God from her. And I got to point out that is days that is when people don’t understand the Word of God. And that understanding is not just knowing what it says, but believing what it says, and that it is something valuable and precious to cling to and apply in our daily lives. Then I showed her how it also says that getting excited and emotional about it but falling away isn’t the way. And I showed her how letting the concerns of this life get in the way and prevent us from our calling is not either. Then we talked about the good soil, that fertile soil, and how it multiplies the seed of love that is planted there.
My 5 year old daughter wants desperately to be that good soil, that vessel that doesn’t just lose hold on it but clings to it and lives a life following the Way.
Lord, help us all to not be a stumbling block to these children. Help us to hunger for your Word and to not let it be stolen away, or twisted and counterfeited in sensuality, or for us to allow the many idols offered in this life to take our eyes off of You, Your Way, Your Purpose and Plan for our life today. Amen.
Harold J. Ballinger 