One of the most basic universal human wishes, I think, is for our children — and indeed everyone’s children — to be fundamentally safe and good and well. When my son was little I got a tremendous satisfaction deep inside at knowing that no one at the school bus stop was going to tell him that he was going to hell. My baby was going to be safe, because he was a Christian.
Yeah, a lot of you are laughing right? We should all laugh at that. I was so very afraid.
God calls us to follow him, love him, serve him and our neighbors, and maybe some other stuff. He says not one thing about being safe. In fact, he flat out says in Mark 8 to be his followers we’re to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow him.
Me, I have always put a little asterisk somewhere in there.
I’ll follow you so long as my baby is safe.
And he’s nearly sort of kind of a grown man now. “Make good choices,” I say, all the time. But again, I’ve got my asterisk with God: keep him safe, in the palm of your hand.
When he was about three years old or so I talked to a very dear friend and Christian Educator and said something in passing like “The best thing about being Christian now is that it will make my child safer, plus of course I love God.”
Whoa…
She put down what she was holding, and she reached for my hand, and she looked me in the eyes and she said, “Whatever happens, God will be there for him. And for you. Whether it is safe or not.”
I can’t say that I let go of my asterisk. Theology is complicated when all you want in the middle of the night when the what if’s run through your head is just for your child to be safe.
Sometimes I am able to give my asterisk an asterisk: thank you God for my most precious gifts.
Even so, God, even so.
FTGOG 