Let the Children Come

"She lost everything," the grandmother says to me, "when her mom left. Her stepdad only wanted her younger sisters, his biological children. He didn't want her." The grandmother holds her granddaughter's hand and walks her to her first class at A World of Music, a festival I am directing at our church this week, a week of singing and rhythm and musical theater.

Not all drama is found on the stage.

"He was acting out yesterday," the mother says to me as I walk between classes. "Hit his sister. Threw something at his dad."

"What would you like me to do?" I ask, looking into the eyes of a woman who doesn't really see me, who is sorting things in her mind. Struggling.

The mother pours out the child's story, the dam of water bursting past lips that have been silent too long. "We adopted him one month ago. He's lived in eight homes." The mother clears emotion from her throat. "He's a good kid but sometimes it is too much."

It.

The heartache. The abandonment. The pain.

Too much for an eight-year-old boy's heart.

Eight years. Eight homes

.I think I would act out too.

When we were planning A World of Music we prayed as a staff that it would be more than just a well-run music camp, but that we would have opportunity to touch young hearts with the love of Jesus.

Because sometimes I forget

.I forget how much pain can be packed into one young soul, a small child who should be focusing on climbing trees, learning to read and riding a bicycle.

They raise their hands and ask for prayer for mothers with cancer, dads without jobs and grandparents who are dying.

I read a Facebook post the other day, "Children were never meant to be victims. Or mere survivors. They were meant to be painters, guitarists, surfers, dancers." *

I like that. I believe that. It's one reason we host A World of Music every year. So children can explore. Create. Dream. Imagine.

But sometimes no matter what we do, pain, sickness, and death will touch their young lives. And when we encounter that pain, we do what Jesus said to do in Matthew 19:14: to let the children come to him and not to get in their way. For God's kingdom BELONGS to them.

Jesus understands their young hearts.

He has not forgotten.

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* From the Not For Sale Campaign Facebook page, an organization that deals with modern day slavery