Educational toys have been trending for Christmas for many years. My youngest son has weekly occupational therapy. A note came home saying he worked on "visual motor perception." My oldest son asked what that was. "That's what gives you the ability to play video games and sports." Oh, I got that, was his reply. I think many of their toys...nerf guns and nerf balls...handheld games, kinect games...work on visual motor perception. Is that enough "education" for the holidays? And the point of educational toys, at some level, must be be to assuage the guilt we feel over spending too much money on kids who already have too much stuff. What are teaching our kids at Christmas?
So I don't want to get on my high horse here. I really want to have a conversation with the parents of the world who want their children to learn to believe that the world is...
The World is God's, not mine. I believe that the world was created by God for God's glory. We humans are a part of that creation. Because God created the world, the world belongs to God. God gave humans a special role in world stewardship. Stewardship is different than consumption. Imagine a friend leaving a plate of cookies on the table. The friend asks you to watch the cookies, they are for his niece. He offers to share with you, with the clear understanding that there must enough left to share with his niece. He leaves to get her. You devour all the cookies, break the plate, dust the crumbs to the floor, and then mock the little girl for her tears when she finds her cookies gone. The friend asks what you were thinking, and you offer some rigmarole about "early bird gets the worm." Of course, now your friend thinks you are a worm and his niece is ready to feed you worms. Too simplistic? Probably. But I want my children to understand that the world is not theirs to consume and waste. It is only theirs for a season. I fear my generation may have not learned our lesson.
The World is a beautiful, fearful, wonderful, strange place. Because the world is God's, God has left his fingerprints in all of creations. I love the little idiosyncrasies of creation: like your forearm is the same length as your foot; a widow's peak is genetic, just like rolling your tongue. I believe that God has given free will to humanity. And we have devoured the cookies. "Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die. Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" Isaac Watts wrote that line in the 1700's. God has allowed us to do unthinkable things to His creations (especially to one another). He in turn has created a plan of redemption for the whole world. I want my children to take their own adventures in the world, but I want them to trust the God of Creation, not the tainted creation. Learn to trust, but learn to trust what is true, strong, and good. Then they will be prepared to accept the world's strange and fearful ways with grace while appreciating and loving the world's beautiful and wonderful ways.
The World is loved by God. And I want my children to know that this includes them. For God loved the world so much (that world that devoured his cookies) that he sent his only son (closer than a niece) so that whomever believed (trusted, acted upon faith) that Jesus is the Son of God, would not die (become worm trash), but would have eternal life (zoe...life found only in God). And I want my children to know this includes their perceived enemies, just as Jesus said. I want the reservoir from which they love to be deep. My wish, my blessing for them is that deep waters of grace and love will flow in their souls. May they have the capacity to love all because they are loved by the Author of Love so completely.
The World is a better place because of Jesus. Jesus has transformed the world. Jesus will redeem the world. I want my children to believe that they have the power to transform the world for good through the love of Jesus.
So what gift teaches that?
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