Children

This post was not written using AI.

And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. (St Mark 10:13-16)

Children have value in their own right, and not merely because they are potential adults. Indeed, sometimes I think — and the Lord’s words suggest — that their relative importance is the opposite of what we ordinarily suppose. Children are not here to be brought into adulthood; adults are here to protect and preserve childhood. Although we grow to adulthood, the presence of childhood in the world is of eschatological importance: of such is the kingdom of God. A child’s soul in its presence to the world is closer than your own to the reason for which God made the world in the first place.

The next time you are with a child, your own or anyone else’s, don’t be eager to think of ways to teach them, to initiate them into some version of our cultural consensus about adulthood. Be eager to watch them, learn from them, and offer what you have to offer them in order to protect them and strengthen them. Make an open space around them in which they can be children: this is your fundamental role. Consider yourself, yes, literally, the helpers of their joy (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Likewise, take on this burden of adulthood: build a wall to protect them from the corruption of the world. It’s your burden to walk in the midst of that corruption yourself while still keeping the Apostle’s counsel: whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8); and to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep [yourself] unspotted from the world (James 1:27).

Aspire to be someone who never harms children, or childhood, but more, someone who actively protects them; and still more, someone who deeply venerates childhood as one of the greatest of the Lord’s creations and gifts. Follow this principle through in all domains of your life. Let it be a moral and practical lodestar. Does this course of action or way of life serve children, serve childhood itself?

If you reflect deeply, that question will strike deeply.