Teaching with Chalk (Friday Devotional)

 

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

- Matthew 19:13-14

We’re in the middle of a two week stretch at the church when the building is filled with kids every day. This week more than thirty children have been working every day to prepare a biblically based musical that they will perform for their friends, family, and church tonight at 6:30 pm. Next week, some of those same kids, along with a host of others, will be back for five days of games, food, and discipleship at Vacation Bible School. It’s an exciting, noisy, joyous time to be at the church.

With so many kids, including my own, in the building, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the sight that greeted me when I came into my office earlier this week. In the corner of the office where I keep games and activities for my kids, my Bible was sitting next to a set of coloring pages, with chalk marks all over its front cover.

That image—God’s Word employed as a canvas for a child’s imagination—got me thinking about what Jesus would have said if he’d walked in and seen the Bible when I did. Would he have been horrified by the sacrilege of holy scripture? Would he have gone looking for the perpetrator to rebuke them and demand an apology? Would he have insisted upon order and respect from the little children who’d come into his house?

I don’t think so. I think he’d have laughed, and maybe even kept that chalk on his Bible’s cover as a badge of honor. After all, the Jesus we read about in the gospels is one who not only has time for children but welcomes them warmly, even when others seek to sternly push them away. Indeed, Jesus goes so far as to say that God’s kingdom belongs to those who are like little children.

As adults, we are rightfully preoccupied with teaching our children and grandchildren what’s right. But even as we teach our kids, we should make sure we are also learning from them—learning about honest vulnerability, learning about childlike faith, and learning about eager, earnest love for the Lord. Children may be noisy and messy, but they have a thing or two to teach us about the Father. And they just may teach us with chalk.