International Children’s Day
June 1st was International Children’s Day. This day was part of the 1925 Proclamation in Geneva at the World Conference on Child Welfare, to bring awareness to serious abuse, oppression, and depravity of children. Today, millions of children are malnourished and exploited, especially those that are disabled. These children are a blessing from God, but unfortunately, our churches are not welcoming places for these families.
What does God say about children? God made us wonderfully in His image. Psalm 127:3 states that children are a reward from Him. Jesus wants the little children to come to Him in Matthew 19:14. There are many verses about training up children. Also, Jesus uses the nature of a child-like faith to enter His kingdom (Matthew 18:1-3). God commands children to obey their parents by honoring them (Ephesians 6:1-3). This is a model of our relationship to God. In all the verses about children, there is never a qualification of only healthy, obedient children.
God made us ALL in His image. He made us ALL wonderfully. In John 9:1-3, the man was not blind due to sin; rather, God made the blind man to glorify Himself. Any child, whether physically or psychologically disabled, is for His glory. He makes no mistakes. The world labels these children as mistakes. The world makes what God created as good, into bad or wrong. At creation, God saw that this was good (Genesis 1:10; 12; 17; 21; 25; 31). Our marred, sinful world perverts what God saw as good. Satan perverts our minds with fearfulness of the strange. Psalm 139 reveals God’s loving weaving of us in our mother’s womb. He gently, wonderfully formed us with no missing parts (Psalm 139:13-18). He cares so much for every child that He knows the number of hairs He placed on their heads (Luke 12:7).
Imagine Jesus calling all the children to Him; were they all perfectly behaved children? Or were some autistic, wheelchair bound, or blind? Jesus called the children to Him without any qualifications, because He looked at them with compassion. They were to glorify Him within their disability. God's hidden smile is revealed in the glory of His wonderfully made creation. Like Jesus, we are to see these children as any other children, fully made in His image, but uniquely designed for His mission. We need to stop avoiding these children in our community. Their behavior is not always due to sin or something we need to fix. We need to stop avoiding their parents. We need to end tolerating families. Don’t be a church of inclusion but one of belonging. These children are God’s creation and must feel it. Serve these children and their families. Take a meal anytime or help with getting groceries. Through love, serve through them and along them. In a church community of belonging, ALL can serve on mission. God chooses the most unlikely to do His work.