Suffer the Children

With our grandchildren living in Georgia, we don’t get to be with them in person as much as we’d like. The other side of that coin is that it’s special when we are able to spend time with them. This year, they joined us for a week and a half when we were vacationing in northern Wisconsin.

The older of the grandchildren is pre-teen, and the younger is seven turning eight. Both have rich imaginations and great senses of humor. They also love to spin stories when we’re all in the car, which entertains grandma and granddad.

Watching them learn to fish, to set the hook at the right moment, brings back memories of their dad and uncle at those same ages. Noting their disappointment when the fish weren’t biting or when the fish managed to get off the hook also brought back memories of when I experienced the same at that age.

I love my grandchildren’s carefreeness, their delight in small things, like old toys that we’ve kept, and their general trust in life. Even as I notice those traits, I am aware that many children in our world feel none of those emotions.

As adults we are conditioned to accept the way that nationalism and borders often limit our sense of compassion, even though nationalism and borders are human constructs. That is, they are human-made. The Rio Grande river isn’t a border in its essence. It’s just a river. Humans made it a border. The same is true of the border between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Gaza.

The point I am making is that a child born in Gaza isn’t a Palestinian, but rather is in essence only a child. A child born on one side of the Rio Grande isn’t Mexican or Texan, but is instead only a child. A child anywhere in the world is born with similar needs as other children, but nationality isn’t one of those. Nationality isn’t a fundamental need; it’s an add-on.

No child born in the US, Guatemala, Sudan, or Gaza chose to be born where they were born. And yet, the national identity stamped on children will determine if they grow up in a war zone or in peace, have access to adequate health care or life cut short by disease or famine, and are illiterate or receive an education. A child in one family can emigrate to the US and be welcomed, while another child who seeks shelter in the same country will be labelled a criminal.

I remember reading a while ago a suggestion that we who are able to raise our children and grandchildren in peace and prosperity should “adopt” a child in a threatened or underdeveloped nation. This would not entail physically ripping that child away from her or his family, but instead providing, the best we can, this one child with the resources for safety, adequate health care, and an education.

As I watch my grandchildren run around, laugh, and act silly, I can’t help but imagine what their lives would be if they were born in Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, or North Korea. That’s worth asking, as children every bit as beautiful, innocent, and loveable as my grandchildren and your children or grandchildren are being born in those places today.

In the archaic language of the King James Bible, Jesus utters the words, “Suffer the children.” “Suffer” in this case, means “allow,” as in “Allow the children to come to me.” But the phrase can be taken another way if we add the current meaning of the word “suffer.” “Suffer the children” can then be read as “Sadly, the children are suffering.”

Unfortunately, that is a fact in many places in the world and in our country. But you and I can do something about that.