RICHARD WURMBRAND

F rom the Lips of Children

From the Lips of Children

By the same author

Tortured for Christ

In God's Underground

The Soviet Saints

Sermons in Solitary Confinement

If Prison Walls Could Speak

The Church in Chains

The Answer to Moscow's Bible

Christ on the Jewish Road

Little Notes Which Like Each Other

If That Were Christ, Would You Give Him Your

Blanket?

From the Lips

of Children

Richard Wurmbrand

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

LONDON SYDNEY AUCKLAND TORONTO

Illustrations by Peter S. Smith

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Wurmbrand, Richard

From the lips of children.—(Hodder

Christian paperbacks)

1. Children—Religious life

2. Christian life

I. Title

248.8'2 BV4571.2

ISBN 0 340 39267 3

Copyright © 1986 by Richard Wurmbrand. First printed 1986. All rights

resemed. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, record-

ing, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in

writing from the publisher. Printed in Great Britain for Hodder and Stoughton

Limited, Mill Road, Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent by Richard Clay

(The Chaucer Press) Limited, Bungay, Suffolk. Photoset by Rowland

Phototypesetting Limited, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Hodder and Stoughton

Editorial Office: 47 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

To lovely Rosemary Harris, a loving friend with a

child's heart, the first to introduce me to churches in

Britain'

Contents

Prologue 11

Beliefs 15

Questions 28

Answers 44

Prayers 57

Interpretations 68

Misinterpretations 83

Versions 95

Reactions 106

Motives 123

Solutions 138

Admonitions 148

Explanations 158

Epilogue 170

A ship's captain took his six-year-old daughter with him

on an ocean journey. A terrible storm arose, and the

order was given for everybody to enter the lifeboats.

A maid came into the captain's cabin, where his little

girl was sleeping, and woke her. 'Quick! Come with me!

The ship is sinking.'

The girl asked, 'Where is my father?'

'The captain is at the helm.'

Then,' said the girl calmly, T can go back to sleep. He

will not let the ship sink when his child is on board.'

A child, standing on the ocean shore, waved to an ocean

liner passing by, hailing the captain to take him on board.

An adult watching him in amusement finally spoke.

'Don't be silly! You can hitchhike by car, but not by ocean

liner!'

Undaunted, the boy continued to signal. Suddenly a

boat was lowered from the ship. Sailors came to the shore

to pick the boy up. As they left he shouted back to the

astonished observer, 'You see - I wasn't silly. I knew

what I was doing. The captain of the ship is my father!'

May we have such childlike trust in our Captain!

Acknowledgments

Almost all the sayings of children recorded in this book

have been gathered by myself at the very source - 'from

the lips of children'. However, I acknowledge gratefully

other sources, including Alfonse de Liguori's Life of

Martyrs (for stories of children who died for Christ); the

secretly printed magazines of the Soviet underground

churches (for stories of prisoners' children); various

Christian publications including Daily Bread and Portals of

Prayer, and a few foreign publications.

Some of these stories have appeared in several ver-

sions in various places. It has sometimes been impossible

to find the original source.

Where I quote from children's own remarks, I have

used only their words. I hope they will not insist on their

copyright! Almost all the commentaries are my own.

Richard Wurmbrand

Prologue

Jesus is going to corne back with his arms full of toys.

Today new theologies are sweeping, like weather fronts,

across the globe: black theology, God-is-dead theology,

feminist theology, liberation theology, and many more.

So why should we introduce yet another - 'children's

theology'?

Jesus would surely have preferred it to some other

human fabrications. In fact He endorsed it: 'I tell you the

truth, unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 18:3).

12 From the Lips of Children

To become like little children means to think as they

do, and that is as true in theological matters as in any

other. My grandson Alex (who at six years old was quite

well read in the Scriptures) once said to me, 'The Bible is

meant for children. Only the Children of Israel came out

of slavery in Egypt; the grown-ups stayed behind. Only

the Children of God enter heaven. It will be a country

without any grown-ups!'

Little did he know how close he was to the truth!

Jesus' teaching that we must become like little children

has been the subject of much thought and discussion

both by theologians and by philosophers. What exactly

does Jesus mean? Does He mean that we have to become

less complicated, more humble, more open, more trust-

ing? Perhaps He means we must be prepared to play?

What precisely are the characteristics of children which

we are to imitate?

The German philosopher, Karl Jaspers, commented: 'It

is part of the very essence of man that he is a philosopher,

and there is a wonderful confirmation of that in the

questions that children ask. It is not unusual to hear,

from their lips, profoundly philosophical statements.'

The psychologist Carl Jung went even further. He

suggested that adults whose minds were troubled should

play with toys, like children. He himself, he said, had

found it to be a helpful spiritual exercise.

A little Turkish girl of four years old, called Ariel, told

me, 'Jesus is going to come back with his arms full of toys.

He will even bring a piano for me!'

If we have not "become like little children', to whom

will Jesus give his playthings?

In the Bible it is written that 'a little child shall lead them'

(Isa. 11:6). A child whose parents were divorced came

across that verse and demanded, 'Then why don't they

let us lead? We would never have invented pubs, casinos

or nuclear war. If we were the leaders, there would be

no spankings and no divorce.'

Prologue 13

Jesus tells us that we must be born again, and that

suggests that we must return to the innocence and trust-

fulness of childhood. But it must be a genuine return. We

must not be people who put on childlikeness to order,

but people who are childlike by nature, having a spon-

taneous sense of dependency and an awareness that we

need to be guided.

Children have a great advantage; their minds are not

compartmentalised. They do not make a distinction be-

tween the concrete and the abstract. They have no need

to pretend.

So their thoughts on theological matters are of special

interest to us.

I have often been taken aback by the remarkable in-

sights of the children I have known. For many years now

I have been recording their questions and comments,

observations and insights. Many are from my own fam-

ily, from my son Mihai and my grandchildren Amélie

and Alex.

My hope is that the incidents which are recounted in

this book will help you to listen the more perceptively to

the children in your own life, and enable you to recapture

some of the unsophisticated candour and openness that

belong uniquely to childhood.

It is said that the child is father to the man. Similarly, a

child's intuitions about God may well help adults to

embrace true theology.

Beliefs

SMI

"It is cold outside. How are you?"

When he was five years old my son Mihai became

dangerously ill. His life was threatened; he needed an

emergency operation, a trepanning of the skull. This is a

major operation, in which a piece of bone is removed to

relieve pressure on the brain.

The night before the operation we called a number of

fellow-believers to gather round his bed to pray for a

successful outcome.

As I sat beside him I touched his body. It was burning

with fever. I said to him, 'Tomorrow you are to have an

operation, a dangerous one. It's possible that you will

die.'

Mihai replied joyfully. 'Then I'll go to heaven! Angels

must have splendid toys. An angel might teach me how

to play the harp!'

16 From the Lips of Children

'Well, it's not that simple; you are a sinner.'

'But Father, didn't you tell me that Jesus' blood

cleanses us from sin? I'm not worried - I will be in

heaven.'

'Well, Mihai, these brothers and sisters have come to

pray for your welfare. The Bible says that when someone

is sick, the elders of the Church should be called and they

should pray over him. Then he will recover. Do you

believe that?'

T believe everything the Bible says,' he answered

simply.

One brother after another prayed. Then Mihai himself

prayed: 'I thank you, God, that you are making me

healthy now, and that I will soon be able to go with my

father to the toyshop to buy a new toy.'

My hand still lay on his chest. As he prayed I felt the

fever diminish markedly. When he had finished his brief

prayer, I said to my wife 'Take his temperature. God's

miracles are measured with the thermometer!'

Sure enough, Mihai's temperature had dropped.

There was no need of any operation the next day. In-

stead, he played in the garden.

Several days later, I was able to take him to the toy

shop. At that time, the Soviet army had just invaded

Rumania, our homeland, and had shown a marked

liking for alcohol. A great deal of drunkenness was in

evidence.

When we entered the department store, a Soviet cap-

tain was there with a woman sergeant. They were

attempting to make some purchases, but were handi-

capped by not knowing our language. On the other

hand, the salesman could not speak Russian. I offered to

translate for them.

Mihai repeatedly urged me to tell them about Christ. I

too was waiting for the right moment.

After I had helped them in their spending spree, the

sergeant said to me, 'You have been so kind to us.

Beliefs 17

Perhaps you could do me one more favour. I need some

dresses. Where can I find them?'

Now I knew she was at my mercy!

'I haven't the slightest idea about such matters - but

may I invite the captain and you to come to our home for

lunch? Afterwards, my wife will take you shopping.'

Mihai was delighted that we would have them in our

home, where they could learn about the faith. 'Buy them

a bottle of wine,' he urged. 'Then they'll listen better. You

know that all their soldiers are drunkards!'

Probably he had heard me quote Paul's words: 'To the

Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. ... To the

weak I became weak, to win the weak' (1 Cor. 9:20, 22). I

smiled at his ingenuous suggestion; but I was indeed

able to share with my guests the fruit of the True Vine,

which gives life eternal.

Both officers were converted.

In the Soviet Union, Piotr, whose father was in prison for

his faith, was interrogated at school by a police officer

who had a hidden motive for his questions. Smiling and

apparently sympathetic, the officer said, T really like

your father, and I want him released. But I need more

information about him. Tell me about your father.'

'Oh!' replied Piotr. 'He tells beautiful children's

stories. When he speaks it's as if Jesus were present in the

room. Only last Christmas he told us how Jesus was born

in a manger, and how wise men came to worship Him.

We should worship Him, too.'

The officer ignored this. 'Where was this gathering?

Who was present? Who else spoke?'

The child sensed the danger. T can tell you the whole

story just as my father told it. Beyond that I have nothing

to say to you. You are not one of our people. I don't trust

you.'

Many disasters have been caused in the Church by

unveiling its mysteries to the profane, and by casting the

18 From the Lips of Children

pearls of the Kingdom before swine. It is important to

cultivate a discerning spirit, such as Piotr had.

When young Alex arrived home from holiday with his

parents, he went round the house kissing the front door,

his pillow, and many other things, repeating 'This is my

home.'

We should have that same spirit as we approach the

heavenly Jerusalem, which is our everlasting home. Even

though we may live very comfortably here, we are still

pilgrims and strangers in this world.

A missionary came back to the United States after forty

years of service in Africa, where he had endured many

hardships. Sailing on the same ship was President

Theodore Roosevelt, returning from an elephant-

hunting safari.

A large crowd turned out to greet the president, but no

one came to meet the missionary. He was feeling very

sorry for himself. Then he was comforted by an inner

voice that reminded him: 'The president has come home;

you are not home yet.'

When we reach the heavenly Jerusalem, we too will

impulsively kiss the door and threshold of our real home.

Here are some letters written to Basil Rishuk, imprisoned

in the USSR for his Christian faith, by his children

Andrew (ten years old), Gena (twelve), and Tanya

(fourteen).

I kiss you, dear Daddy, in the love of Christ. As I write,

it is cold and unpleasant outside. How are you? How is

your health? May the Lord shed in our hearts the peace

and joy that Jesus gives, in spite of all the tempests. We

will always trust only in Him. We believe that He will

give us power for the fight, that He will help us to

withstand the tempest.

Beliefs 19

It is important to withstand it, because we know that

the calm follows the storm and that this time it will be

eternal, with a happiness that has no end.

At home, everything is going well. We live in the

hope of seeing you, but also of seeing the Lord, so that

we may enter into eternal life, where no one will

separate us.

A hearty kiss.

Your son, Andrew.

Dear Daddy, I greet you in the love of our Lord Jesus

Christ. Papa, we never forget you. We pray constantly

to God for you. We pray for your health. We pray also

for all prisoners, and trust that God will keep them.

Daddy, ask the prison commander to allow a per-

sonal visit, for it is a long time until the New Year and

we all want to come to you. We have such a yearning

for you!

Your loving son, Gena.

Dear Daddy, Christ has risen!

How are you? May the resurrected Lord illumine your

camp, so that you may be joyous even in sorrow. When

I hear hymns sung my heart shrinks and tears run,

though I screw my eyes up as tight as I can. May we see

each other soon. You are alone, and we are all together.

But soon all will pass, and then you will be with us.

Be strong.

Your daughter, Tanya.

May we learn from such children to have a burning love

for our imprisoned brothers and sisters in Christ.

A Methodist missionary in Africa told of a child who

went to Sunday School and there heard the story of Abel

sacrificing a lamb to God.

20 From the Lips of Children

The next day the child made an altar from a few stones

out on the fields. On it, he placed a mutton chop. Then he

prayed.

'O God, my Father, I have made You a sacrifice. I have

only two pence, so I can't buy a lamb. If I owned any

lambs I would give You one; but I only have this meat.

Please, my Father, send fire down from heaven to

consume it.'

God did touch the meat, though not with fire. Ants

consumed it. Ants belong to God just as much as a flame

of fire does.

May we have a child's readiness to follow the example

of the saints of old, and bring sacrifices to God.

It might seem that the ultimate anguish is to lose a child

through death.

It is not so. There is worse suffering.

In the village of Dubrovo in the Soviet Union, a family

named Sloboda (the name means 'liberty' in Russian) had

committed the crime of being Christians.

For that crime Mrs. Sloboda was jailed for four years.

Her five children - Galia, Shura, KoHa, Liusa, PavlÜk (the

youngest five years old) - were taken away and placed in

an atheistic children's camp.

This type of separation is more difficult to bear than

that of death. Mrs. Sloboda never saw her children again.

At the age of forty-nine she died in prison, as a result of

torture. The children were only allowed to attend her

burial. At her grave, they recited this prayer: 'Lord, our

mother has died. Help us to be as righteous as she has

been. Help us to give a witness such as she has given.

Amen.'

And that was all. Unafraid of pain, they had decided

to walk the way of martyrdom. Detention in the Com-

munist camp had neither frightened nor 're-educated'

them.

Accepting suffering for Christ's sake will be an essen-

Beliefs 21

Hal part of children's theology, if they are provided with

true Christian models.

In Communist Rumania, a Christian girl named Viorica

was beaten harshly in school because she had invited her

schoolmates to church. She fainted during the beating,

and an ambulance had to take her to hospital.

Two days passed before she regained consciousness.

When she did, the doctor at her bedside said, 'You poor

girl, at last you have opened your eyes. All this time I

have been thinking of the cruelty of the Director who beat

you like this. My heart has been bitter with hatred. I wish

I could take revenge on him.'

Viorica smiled. 'There is no need to hate him. Jesus

taught us to love everyone. Just before I opened my eyes,

I saw Him and talked to Him. He asked me whether it still

hurt. And He told me that in heaven I will receive a very

beautiful crown, which is reserved only for those who

have suffered for Him. He told me to pray for those who

mistreated me, and to love them, because our influence

will help them to give their lives to God and so become

His children.'

According to children's theology, this is how a Chris-

tian should react to being flogged. Like their Saviour,

they know how to love when abused, and how to forgive

when persecuted.

Charles Spurgeon once said, 'A child of five, if properly

instructed, can as truly believe and be regenerated as an

adult.' This suggests that a child so instructed can have

very valuable theological insights.

When he was a child Spurgeon's mother told him,

'Charles, your father and I have trained you in righteous-

ness. We have taught you the Word of God. We have

lived a godly life before you. If you do not live a godly life,

22 From the Lips of Children

we will stand before God in the day of judgement and

bear witness against you/

A friend once argued with the adult Spurgeon that

children cannot really understand the gospel. Spurgeon

took him to his Sunday School, where the gentleman

asked one of the boys, 'What kind of a heart do you

have?'

'A very good one, sir,' was the reply.

The man turned to Spurgeon. 'You see? He does not

understand the ABC of the gospel. He does not realise

that he is a sinner.'

Spurgeon asked the child, 'How do you know your

heart is good?'

'Well/ he answered, 'I had an old heart, inherited from

my ancestors who were sinners. But Jesus gave me a new

heart. Jesus has no bad hearts to give! If He gave me a

heart I am sure it is an excellent one.'

ieinrich Heine, the German Jewish-Christian poet who

ved in the first part of the nineteenth century, wrote of

is early yearnings for God:

As a little child I was already asking questions such as,

Who is God? and, What does He look like? I could

spend whole days looking up towards heaven and

would be very sad in the evening because I had not

seen the most holy face of God, but only grey, silly

caricatures formed of clouds. I was totally confused by

astronomical events, which were not concealed even

from little children, and constantly marvelled that

these thousand million stars were big, beautiful earth-

balls like ours and that one single God ruled over each

shining world.

I remember that once, in a dream, I saw God very

high up and far away. He looked happily through a

little window in heaven, with the face of a pious old

man with a small Jewish beard, and scattered down-

Beliefs 23

ward a multitude of seeds that blossomed as they fell

from heaven, grew in the infinity of space, and en-

larged until they became glittering, populated worlds,

each as big as our earth.

I could never forget this vision. Several times I saw

the happy old man, sowing the seeds of worlds from

His small window in heaven. Once I heard Him click

His tongue as our maid did when she threw barley to

the chickens.1

As an adult Heine mocked religion and the churches. He

became the great friend of Karl Marx, the God-hater, and

forgot this vision, which became a reality to him again

only a short time before his death.

Those who are privileged to know God when they are

children should strive to retain their tender images of

Him, and not surrender them to pseudo-intellectualism.

'Remember your first love,' says Jesus. (If we fail to do so,

the images of those early days may come back to haunt us

at death.)

When she was four years old, Amélie was alone with my

wife and me in the chapel of Campus Crusade in San

Bernadino, California.

Suddenly, without any prompting, she stepped for-

ward and said: 'Jesus, I am Yours/

Since that time she has steadfastly resisted any calls to

commit herself to Christ. 'I did so once/ she says. 'I am a

child of God. I'm sure of it.'

If a child can be so sure that Christ has received her into

His loving care, why should we ever doubt that He has

accepted us, as our Saviour?

1. Heinrich Heine, Works (Lowit, Germany), Vol. II, pp. 425-56.

24 Front the Lips of Children

Julieta was an aristocratic lady who lived during the

reign of the fourth-century Roman emperor, the cruel

Diocletian.

She was asked to bring a sacrifice to a heathen altar, but

answered, 'I am a Christian. I am prepared to lose not

only my property but even my life, rather than deny my

God/

Alexander, proconsul of Cilicia, ordered that Julieta's

three-year-old child Quiricus be torn from her embrace

and be flogged to a pulp.

The child saw his mother's agony and struggled to

return to her. But he was held back by Alexander, who

sat him on his knees and tried to kiss him. Punching and

kicking, Quiricus freed himself from the tyrant and cried

out, 'I too am a Christian!'

In a rage Alexander grabbed him and beat him to

death. The ground was spattered with the boy's blood

and brains. Julieta, who was herself being flogged, cried

T give You thanks, O my God, because You have called

my boy to Yourself before me.'

Would we have the courage to say, T too am a Chris-

tian,' if it meant T too am prepared to die under torture

for Christ'?

A child did so.

St. Cyril, who was born at Caesarea, became a Christian

while he was a child. In consequence he was ill-treated,

and finally turned out of his home, by his idolatrous

father.

Word of this reached the judge, who summoned Cyril

to appear before him. He had been told that the child

frequently called upon the name of Jesus. So he promised

Cyril that he would work out a reconciliation between

him and his father - on condition that he promised never

to utter that name again.

The child answered: T am content to be turned out

of my father's house, because I shall receive a more

Beliefs 25

spacious mansion in heaven. Neither do I fear death; by

dying, I shall obtain a better life.'

In order to frighten him the judge ordered him to be

bound and had him led away, apparently to execution.

But he secretly gave orders that the boy should not be

harmed. The executioner brought Cyril to a blazing fire

and threatened to throw him in. But Cyril was quite

prepared to lose his life.

Tlie executioner then brought him back to the judge,

who said to him, 'My child, you saw the fire. Cease to be a

Christian, so that you can go back to your father's house

and inherit your estates.'

Cyril replied: 'I fear neither fire nor sword. But I long to

have a dwelling more magnificent, and riches that will

last longer, than my father's. God will accept me. So

hasten to put me to death, so that I can quickly go to enjoy

Him.'

Those standing by wept, to hear the child speak in this

way.

'You must not weep/ said Cyril, 'but rather rejoice,

and encourage me in my suffering, so that I may come to

have that house which I desire so passionately.'

He did not flinch from his position, and when death

came he suffered it with joy.

In the sixteenth century there was a great persecution of

Christians in Japan, under the Emperor Taicosoma.

At first, the officers whose responsibility it was to make

up the list of Christians to be executed refused to include

the name of little Louis. But the boy, who had been

baptised only a few days earlier, cried and begged to

have his name on the list. Eventually he was successful.

As he was led to his death, which was to be by

crucifixion, his face radiated joyful confidence; and those

who were watching were deeply moved.

The under-governor of Nagasaki presided over the

execution. He was willing to release Louis, provided that

26 Front the Lips of Children

he was prepared to renounce the Christian religion. But

the child declared, 'On such a condition I do not want to

live. If I die, I shall be losing this short and miserable life

and gaining a happy and eternal one/

When he saw the cross, upon which he was to be

nailed, he ran to embrace it. The cross had always been

an object very dear to him.

In another Japanese province, there was a further

persecution of Christians a century later under King

Canzugedono. Another little Louis was condemned to

die, and his mother with him. His last words to her were,

'My dear mother, I will not forget to call upon the name of

Jesus as long as I am alive/

They bound him to a small cross, opposite his mother,

and he continually repeated the sacred name. His

executioner, in a fury, killed him with his lance.

Let us learn from such children to find, in the very

name of Jesus, comfort in all suffering.

On that occasion, two more children were sentenced to

death: Thomas, who was twelve years old, and Peter

who was only six.

Their fathers were sentenced first. When Thomas

heard that his father was to be a martyr, he longed so pas-

sionately for such a death for himself that when his own

turn came he hastened to join him. Embracing his father,

he said, 'I am going to die with you for the faith. We will

go to heaven together/

The executioner wanted to spare Thomas the horror of

seeing his father being tortured, but the child cried out, 'I

want to die with him!' They brought him near to where

the bleeding body lay. There, his face radiant, he offered

his head to the executioner.

Little Peter also said, of his father, 'They will make me

die with him because I am a Christian. And I am so glad!'

Beliefs 27

Arriving at the place of execution, he knelt readily.

Seeing the executioner with his sword, he extended his

neck, all the time clasping his hands in prayer.

The executioner was deeply moved, and he replaced

his sword in its scabbard. 'I have no heart to kill this

innocent lamb/ he protested. A second executioner did

likewise, and so did a third. The child knelt patiently

until a fourth executioner carried out the sentence.

Those who are now past childhood, but have learned to

become like children, think as these young martyrs

thought.

Madame Guyon was a seventeenth-century contem-

plative who was imprisoned for several years because of

her beliefs. T claim for my dowry/ she wrote, 'only

crosses, scourges, persecutions, ignominies, lowliness,

and nothingness of self; which God, in His goodness and

wise purposes, grants unto me/

Questions

"How can God think

about me when He is

busy with all the

things He has tö do in

the world?"

Sometimes the thoughts of children explore unknown

worlds.

'Do boys have boy angels, and girls have girl angels?'

asked my granddaughter Amélie.

It was not a ridiculous question. Spiritual beings are

not sexless. The 'great and wondrous sign' that John saw

in his vision was no asexual being, but a woman (Rev.

12:1). Zechariah in his vision also saw women, some of

them demonic (Zech. 5:7-9). The 'night creature' men-

tioned in Isaiah 34:14 (called, in Hebrew, With) is be-

Questions 29

lieved in Jewish demonology to be the chief female

wicked spirit.

Amélie asked her father, 'Why is it that your wishes are

always the ones that have to be obeyed? The Constitution

says that we have equal rights.'

It is a fair question. There is an answer to it. The Bible

teaches great respect for one's parents. The only one of

the Ten Commandments that promises a blessing is

the fifth: 'Honour your father and your mother.' It is

in the interest of children to be obedient: they get

blessed.

Christian parents owe it to their children to give them

this explanation. In fact, they should be ready to reply

to any questions that their children ask, however

uncomfortable.

For example, Amélie once asked, 'How was God the

Father born? How did the whole thing begin? How did

He come to be in heaven?'

The best answer is simply this: 'Whatever age we

live to, we can only ever know a little. We must learn

to accept that limitation, however old or young we may

be/

Moses warned, 'The secret things belong to the Lord

our God: but the things revealed belong to us and to our

children for ever' (Deut. 29:29). And on the last evening

before His crucifixion, Jesus said to His disciples, 'I have

much more to say to you, more than you can now bear'

(John 16:12).

A question children often ask is, 'What does God look

like?'

I have a simple answer: 'What does the image in a

kaleidoscope look like?'

The image changes all the time.

30 From the Lips of Children

In the Bible, God is likened to many things: love, a

consuming fire, a lion, a stone, a man of war, the Ancient

of Days, and many more. Everything can be in His image,

because He encompasses everything. He is all in all.

If a child responds to this by saying, 'I can't under-

stand/ then you must reply 'Neither can I'! God is not to

be understood but to be ardently loved. He is beyond

anything that man can imagine. He is what He is, not

what we fancy Him to be.

'How can God think about me/ asked a child, 'when He

is busy with all the things that He has to do in the world?'

Yet even man, with all his cares and activity, still has

time to think about sub-microscopic atoms, even tinier

electrons, and beyond them, the most miniscule

elementary subparticles. He makes hypotheses about

particles which he can only visualise mathematically, and

builds vast nuclear chambers to isolate them, to prove

their existence, because they constitute the very life of

mankind and the essence of his environment.

We may be just as minuscule in the scheme of things,

but we are very important to God; we are part of His inner

life. 'In Him we live and move and have our being' (Acts

17:28).

God is as interested in us as we are interested in every

facet of our bodies. Our minds are a part of His conscious-

ness. God also cares about the most minute details of His

creatures' lives.

A small boy asked his mother, 'Did God remember that

you liked curly hair when He planned me?'

The answer is, 'Yes, He did.'

Another child wanted to know, 'Why did God make

people, when He had the stars and the flowers?'

The answer is that it was for the same reason that we

appreciate having brains as well as kidneys, lungs and

toes - for the same reason that a man is not satisfied with

a 'Mona Lisa' or a 'Venus de Milo', but prefers a woman

Questions 31

who is alive, even though she may not possess an ideal

beauty.

When I am out driving with my son and grandchildren, I

often hear the familiar request, 'Grandpa, tell me a story!'

And Amélie fastens the seat-belt, settles herself comfort-

ably, and looks up at me expectantly.

On one occasion I decided to tell her about Noah's ark.

But I had not been telling the story long when she

interrupted.

'Why didn't the wolf eat the sheep in the ark?'

My son exchanged glances with me in the rear-view

mirror. We took deep breaths and in turn tried to pro-

vide an answer. But Amélie was not satisfied. Then she

brightened, and came up with an answer unassailable

in its logic.

'I know! When each animal entered the ark, Noah

fastened its seat-belt! He separated the wolf and the

sheep, so the wolf could only snap and not bite.'

Perhaps Amélie was wiser than she knew. We would

be well advised to widely separate individuals whose

temperaments dash, and who generate quarrels and

dissension when they are near to each other.

A child listened to a learned sermon that attempted to

explain away the plain meaning of Scripture. Eventually

she interrupted, exclaiming, 'If God did not mean what

He said, why didn't he say what He did mean?'

Out of the mouth of babes!

When he was quite a small boy, Mihai asked, 'Why didn't

God simply kill the devil, and put an end to all the

trouble?' (When he was grown up, his own daughter

Amélie asked exactly the same question.)

I replied, 'The devil was not always the devil. Once he

32 From the Lips of Children

was a good angel, until the day came when he chose to

become evil. If he had been killed, another good angel

might have made the same choice. So killing the devil

would have achieved nothing. Jesus did not say to the

devil, "Perish!" He said, "Get behind me!" He puts

demons to flight; He does not destroy them. We must

develop that inner resistance. We must learn to do as

Jesus did, and say to the devil, "No, I'm not going to

listen to what you are suggesting."'

In his childish way, Mihai understood the point, and

so in her turn did eight-year-old Amélie.

The famous American evangelist Billy Sunday told the

story of a twelve-year-old boy who went to a preacher

and begged him, 'Please go to the jail and speak to my

Daddy. He murdered my Mummy. We loved him so

much, he was always kind to us; but then he began to

drink. It was whisky that made him do it. Now I have to

look after my three small sisters. Please pray with him.

He's going to be hanged tomorrow.'

He added, 'They told us we would be given his body.

What am I going to do with it? Why don't they deliver it to

the owner of the saloon that sold my father the whisky?

Why don't they hang him? He murdered my father's soul

before my father strangled my mother.'

Who is going to answer the questions children ask?

Why is it that the people who receive the harsh punish-

ments are those who commit the crimes, and not the

brewers and publicans, the authors and publishers of

obscene literature, and the producers of television shows

that glorify violence - all of whom must share responsi-

bility for incitement to crime? Why not indict those

legislators and judges who let the poisoning of souls and

minds go unpunished?

I can name very precisely those people who destroyed

my soul with the poisonous ideas that they purveyed,

Questions 33

when I was very young and lacked discernment. I also

remember with shame that I too led others astray.

A child wanted to know, 'Will God do anything I ask Him

to do? That is what He promised - can I rely on it? Can I

really ask Him for anything at all?'

Yes, it is an all-embracing promise. 'Ask whatever you

wish, and it will be given you/ says Jesus (John 15:7). But

there is an 'if' preceding the promise: 'If you abide in me,

and my words abide in you.'

Be a living part of the mystical body of Christ; let His

words be your guide; and then you can ask anything, and

you will have it.

Those who fulfil the condition will never ask for any-

thing wrong.

Many children are still very young when it occurs to them

to ask why there is so much evil in the world. But if they

retain the mind of a child as they grow older, one can

teach them to see good in everything, and potential good

in everyone.

If a child asks, 'Why should there be evil?' then the

answer must be, 'How can what we regard as evil be used

for good?'

The crucifixion of Jesus was a terrible evil. But it served

the greatest good that this world has ever known; the

salvation of mankind.

The evangelist, Cerullo, asked a boy in Haiti: 'Do you

know Jesus?'

'Is that a new American drink?' he replied. 'I only

know Coke.'

The promoters of Coca-Cola have been more success-

ful than the promoters of Jesus. Many children do not

even know His name.

34 From the Lips of Children

The Church could learn something from the merchants

of this world, although it has an advantage that they do

not have. It has not a product to sell, but a person to

introduce; a person who has living water to give, so that

one need never thirst again.

A boy of four had to play Joseph, and a girl of the same

age Mary, in a Christmas play. The two children began to

quarrel while they were on the stage.

The boy's father chided him. 'You forget what role

you're playing! Joseph never quarrelled with Mary/

The boy answered, 'How do you know?'

The father was dumbfounded. How did he know?

And in truth, he did not know.

However, we know from the Bible that the disciples

quarrelled between themselves. Statues and pictures that

show the saints always smiling are the inventions of

grown-ups. Children know that saints on earth can be

weak and earthly - especially if they live with parents

who are Christians!

But if somebody happens to quarrel or commit some

other sin, it does not mean that he ceases to be a saint.

Christianity is not just a treasure and not just an earthen

vessel. It is a treasure in an earthen vessel. Deny that the

vessel exists, and you deny that the Christian exists.

When Mihai was five, he heard that the saints would one

day walk with Jesus dressed in white garments. 'Does He

have robes in children's sizes?' he enquired.

I assured him that they come in all sizes. St. Paneras

and St. Tarcisius were devoured by wild beasts; they died

as martyrs when they were only nine years old.

There are garments not only for those who are small

and large in body, but also for those small and large in

faith.

Questions 35

A bulldog, on seeing a pocket-sized poodle, de-

manded, 'Do you dare to call yourself a dog?'

The poodle replied, 'I admit that I am not as big as you

are, but you certainly can't call me a cat. A small dog is

still a dog!'

A feeble, fearful, backslidden Christian is still a

Christian, and still has a white robe waiting for him.

A class of children was shown a painting of the Nativity,

and told that the holy family was very poor.

Then where/ queried a child, 'did they get the money

to pay the photographer?'

The child's question could well prompt the reflection

that it is good to share not only bread with the poor, but

also the means of pleasure - such as provision for a family

portrait!

A mother assured her child, who had confessed a sin,

that 'the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from it/ The

child thought for a moment, and then remarked, 'You

said the same thing another time that I sinned. But where

is Jesus' blood when we don't sin? What does it do then?'

In the words of a hymn:

E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.

(William Cowper, 'There is a fountain filled with blood')

There is an unbroken stream of blood flowing from the

wounds of Christ.

Blood flows constantly in our bodies, never pausing,

never resting. It serves a hundred trillion cells, providing

them with oxygen, amino acids, nitrogen and many

36 From the Lips of Children

other necessities. It carries away waste products and

fights invaders. In the meantime, we go about our work

without any awareness of what is happening inside us.

Yet if the blood ceased to flow for a few brief moments,

we would be dead.

In just the same way, the blood of the Saviour flows

throughout His Church, nourishing it with heavenly

manna, and bearing away sins.

Let His blood be an object of our devotion. We need it,

even when we do not sin.

A child once asked her mother, 'If I had not been your

little girl - what would I have been?' She could not

imagine that she might not have existed at all. 'Non-

existence', 'nirvana' - these are concepts that only adults

wrestle with.

For years I was in solitary confinement, without books,

without paper or pen, without ever hearing a voice or a

whisper.

To occupy my time, I sometimes spent hours imagin-

ing what I would do in various situations. What would I

do if I were pope - prime minister - a celebrated writer -

pastor of a church - a millionaire - a beggar?

Once I tried to imagine that I was dead. I imagined

myself in a coffin. Loved ones stood around weeping. A

pastor said a prayer. Then I laughed heartily. 'If I can see

myself in a coffin/1 thought, 'then I can't be dead!'

Many things are possible in life, and it is possible to

imagine oneself in all sorts of situations. A soldier can

dream of becoming emperor. It's possible - it happened

to Napoleon. A beggar can become a millionaire. It's

possible -1 have known men who did. The reverse is also

possible.

Because all these reversals of fate are possible, we can

imagine them happening. But what is unimaginable is

that we might cease to exist. Life is a gift of God, and it

only finds fulfilment in eternal happiness.

Questions 37

The little girl found it impossible even to imagine never

having existed.

Alex's curiosity is boundless. When he was five, he

began to be suspicious about the origins of meat.

'Where do we get meat from?'

'From the supermarket/

'But where does the supermarket get the meat from?'

'From cows/

Alex's suspicions were confirmed. He became very

grave. 'Do you mean that we kill cows so that we can eat

their meat?'

'Yes/

'Why?'

'Because we need nourishment.'

'But/ asked Alex, 'do we at least explain to the cows

that that is why we kill them, and do we apologise to

them for doing it?'

Very orthodox Jews do. I have seen their special

'slaughterers', whose religious function is to sing hymns

while slaughtering animals. The kabbalistic purpose of

doing so is to communicate somehow to unreasoning

animals that they will be incorporated into the bodies of

the chosen people, and will thereby become part of the

temples of God, which is what our bodies are.

We ought to eat our meals with great devotion, re-

membering how many of God's creatures have been

sacrificed so that we may live.

When Alex was six, and had heard the story of Cain

and Abel for the umpteenth time, he said: 'In the begin-

ning it was Cain who was good and Abel evil, because

Abel killed a lamb, which is wrong, whereas Cain did

not. Lambs are nice, living beings. Why did God order

people to kill them for sacrifices?'

To kill a lamb wantonly - or, worse, to have somebody

else kill one because I like eating lamb chops - is wrong.

The Bible teaches that whatever we do we should do to

38 From the Lips of Children

the glory of God. Are we quite sure that He is glorified

when we kill lambs?

Millions of animals are sacrificed each year just so that

we can enjoy a good meal. But it is only justifiable to eat

animals when it is done in the sole desire that our

strengthened bodies may serve God better.

This is why the Talmud says, 'Every meal at which the

subject of conversation is something other than the Word

of God, is an idolatrous meal/

(On the other hand, vegetarianism does not necess-

arily make men better. Cain did not kill a lamb, but he

slew his brother; and Hitler was a strict vegetarian.)

A child was urged to eat carrots and peas because they

contained vitamins, only to retort, 'Why didn't God put

the vitamins in the sweets and ice-cream?'

My answer would have been, 'Because if s important

for children not only to have vitamins, but also to learn to

swallow what may be unpleasant to the taste.'

We all need to learn from the good and the unpleasant.

A Christian must welcome unpleasant things some-

times, because they are part of the 'all things' that God is

working together for our good.

Amélie at six listened to a sermon on Jesus' words, 'Let

the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,

for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these'

(Matt. 19:14).

Turning to me she commented, 'But all men were once

little children, and so they must have had the kingdom of

heaven. How did they lose it?'

I remember my childhood sins very vividly. It does not

require very much effort for most of us to remember how

we lost our childhood innocence: lying, stealing, perhaps

sliding downhill into a particular bad habit.

We had the kingdom, and we lost it. The Bible urges us

Questions 39

to return; we don't have to come to something entirely

new, but simply to return to what was once ours, to the

treasure that we lost.

A boy born in the satellite age was told by his father,

'We have just placed another star in the sky. We have

launched a manned satellite.'

He asked, 'Who placed all the other stars in the sky?'

To this his father, who was not a believer, had no reply.

If it took so much genius and skill and intellectual

brilliance to place into earth's orbit a satellite, manned by

only a few people, a far greater intelligence must have

been required to create the starry heavens.

The existence of man-made satellites is one more proof

of the existence of God.

A child heard his father say 'Faith moves mountains',

and asked him, 'Father, you believe in Christ. When did

you last move a mountain?'

The father was embarrassed!

Jesus surely did not intend that we should move real

mountains. One can imagine what chaos would be

caused, were men to decide to move the Himalayas, the

Rocky Mountains, the Carpathians or Alps according to

whim!

But there are mountains of difficulty, of all kinds, that

faith can move. Every believer should pay heed to this

blessing of God. Then he will be able to say when he last

moved a mountain!

When Amélie was eight, she asked me, 'You were once in

a Communist jail. How did you come to the free world?'

I explained to her that Christian organisations had paid

a ransom of £5,000 for my release.

'But,' she mused, 'you were in jail for fourteen years -

40 From the Lips of Children

why did it take Western Christians so long to collect

10,000 dollars?'

I had no answer.

Others, who still suffer in Communist prisons, could

have been helped long ago if it were not for our apathy.

How much do we contribute towards easing their lot?

But the question goes even deeper.

When Hudson Taylor went as the first missionary to

inland China, one of his first converts asked him, 'How

long have you Englishmen known the gospel?'

'For 1,600 years,' he replied.

'Then why did you leave it so late to tell us about it? My

parents and my ancestors died in sin, and went into the

outer darkness.'

Why is it, that the good things in life seem to take so long

to come to fruition?

I once discussed these matters with a child who, be-

cause he was a child, was not afraid to go even further in

his thinking. 'God is like us/ he observed. 'He has

promised that His kingdom would return. Jesus said,

"Behold, I come quickly." But He tarries.'

Let us continue to pray, 'Thy kingdom come', and do

all we can to hasten His coming. And let us 'never tire of

doing what is right' (2 Thess. 3:13).

In Canada some children were asked to write down what

they would ask the Pope if they were able to speak to him

during his visit to their country.

They wrote down such questions as: 'What can I do to

make God happier?', 'What can I do to help poor

people?', 'How do you feel when you have to make

decisions that will upset people?', and 'How do you feel

about not being able to marry?'

Children ask direct questions; they are much less in-

clined to be devious than their elders. And they expect

straight answers!

Questions 41

In front of Holman Hunt's well-known painting, 'Christ

knocking at the door', a large group of visitors stood in

admiration. One praised the colours; another noted the

expression on Jesus' face; another called attention to the

fact that the door had no outside knob, explaining that

the heart can only be opened from the inside. Still

another pointed out that the feet of Jesus were painted as

turned away from the door; long accustomed to being

rejected, He was prepared to depart.

Only one, a child, asked the question that really

mattered: 'Father, did they let him in?'

It was a very small question. But it is the principal

theme of the painting. All other aspects fade into

insignificance.

A scientist was speaking to a group of children about

Einstein's Theory of Relativity. A child raised the ques-

tion: 'And what if Einstein was wrong?'

Only God can be totally trusted. All human assertions

must be treated with a healthy scepticism.

A cardinal was once asked, 'What if scientists agreed

unanimously that the statements of the Bible are untrue?'

The cardinal replied, 'I would wait a while! Scientists

do not hold on to their certainties for very long.'

Once -1 suppose it was from weariness -1 protested to

Amélie, then aged seven, 'You can't ask questions about

everything!'

'Why not?'

'Because some things just happen. For example, Jesus

said, "You hated Me without a cause." '

But still she persisted. 'Why isn't there a "Why" for

everything?'

Even Einstein could not accept the theory of Heisen-

berg, the great German microphysicist, concerning the

indeterminism of elementary particles. Heisenberg had

42 From the Lips of Children

shown that the law of causality, which was considered

universal, has its limits; and therefore certain events have

no 'why^7.

Adults as well as children have to learn to simply

accept certain facts that seem to do very well without our

analysis and our categorisations as to cause and effect.

It demands humility of mind. 'So much I know, and

further, at this stage, I cannot go/

The Hebrew Bible begins with the letter 'B' (beth),

written ^ - rather like a box with three walls. Hebrew

text is read from right to left, so the opening in the 'box'

faces forward. The rabbis explain that Scripture begins

with this letter because it teaches that you will never

know what is above, behind and below. And so we are to

look forward, in the only direction in which God wishes

to reveal Himself to us.

Amélie again: 'God must have known that Adam and

Eve would sin. Why did He allow it?'

Again this 'Why^7 - the great 'Why'.

The response is simple. Sin is here, and we must fight it

unceasingly. To waste time on fruitless 'Whys' is simply

to sin all over again.

A person who has just been bitten by a rattlesnake will

be foolish to waste time speculating about why he was

attacked. Time is of the essence! The venom must be

extracted - or he will die.

There are times when 'What' and 'How' are much

more important than 'Why'.

Why so many questions, in a book about theology - even

children's theology? Isn't theology a set of dogmatic

statements?

No, it is not.

In the four Gospels, Jesus asks no less than 287 ques-

tions. His statements and assertions are far fewer in

number.

His first recorded statement is a question: 'Why were

Questions 43

you searching for me?' (Luke 2:49). As a child in the

temple, He, like children everywhere, spent His time

simply listening and asking questions (cf. Luke 2:46).

As an adult He retained this childlike characteristic.

Even on the cross, He asked a question: 'My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 15:34).

Later, confronting an enemy of His Church, He asked

him a question: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'

(Acts 9:4).

When I first became a Christian and asked myself two

vital questions, the only answers that I could find in the

Bible were two further questions.

Firstly, I needed to know, which was the true Church?

The Bible answered, 'Who is this that appears like the

dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the

stars in procession?' (S. of S. 6:10).

Secondly, I needed to know who was a reliable pastor

to follow. Again the Bible replied with a question: 'Who

then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master

puts in charge of his servants to give them their food

allowance at the proper time?' (Luke 12:42).

The question is 'Who?': the reply is also, 'Who?'

Questions are an essential part of true theology. As

Heidegger remarked, 'Questioning is the piety of

thought.'

'For we know in part' (1 Cor. 13:9).

Answers

"I would like my father to walk out

of the frame and be with us again."

When Mihai was five, I came home one day and learned

from my wife that he had committed some wrongdoing

for which he needed to be punished. This time I decided

to try a different approach. I left him alone.

The next morning, I told him the story of how Peter

denied his Lord, and how, later, Jesus asked him three

times: 'Do you love Me?' When I had told him the story, I

asked Mihai, 'Do you love Jesus?'

'Yes/ said Mihai.

I asked him again, 'Do you love Jesus?' And again he

answered, 'Yes.'

The third time I asked the question, he understood that

I was chiding him for his sin of the day before. Tears came

to his eyes as he said for the third time, 'Yes, I love Jesus.'

Answers 45

I thought that he might simply be repeating the words

of Peter without really meaning them. So I asked him,

'How do you know that you really love Him?'

His thoughtful rejoinder was: 'Jesus did not ask Peter

that. He was satisfied with the words, "I love you."'

Love really needs no explanation.

The comments of pre-school children indicate how much

of positive value they can be taught, even at an early age.

Little Alex brightened our lives many times with his

little pearls of wisdom.

'I like everybody in,the whole world,' he said once,

'because I belong to God. All except the devil - because

he put Jesus on the cross.'

Once, watching Romeo and Juliet on television, I tried to

explain the plot to him. Later I asked him: 'Did you

understand what was going on?'

His reply meant more than he knew. 'Yes - Grandma is

Jesus'Juliet.'

He had understood, without theological ramifications,

that Jesus' love for His own is like that of a bridegroom for

his bride.

A child sat in his grandfather's arms as both of them

looked in a mirror.

'Did God make us both?' he asked.

'Yes, of course.'

'Well, He does a much better job nowadays. He's had

lots of practice! Now He doesn't put wrinkles on faces.'

God - improving?

Well, strange as it may seem to us, He says so about

Himself: 'I will ... do better unto you than at your

beginnings' (Ezek. 36:11 av).

The fact is, that God has given this generation more

knowledge about health and much greater possibilities of

learning than previous generations - at least, in the

46 From the Lips of Children

Western world. May our young people respond by being

more faithful to Him!

Linna was six years old. She asked a newly-married man,

'Do you love your bride?'

'Yes, of course/ was the quick rejoinder.

That's good, because I imagine it must be awful to be

married to a woman you don't love.'

The only basis for marriage is love between two

people. Divorce is often the result when two people,

pledged to love and care for each other, break their vows

and abandon their commitments - unlike God, who

keeps covenant with His bride, the Church, and is

grieved when she is unfaithful (Matt. 23:37-38).

Tell me something about Jesus, in whom you say you

believe/ a man enquired of a young child.

The boy answered simply. 'I'm too small to say some-

thing great about Him.'

He did not know that he had repeated, almost ver-

batim, what Justin Martyr had said when asked to

explain the mysteries of Christ. Justin was beheaded in

the year AD 155.

'God is gigantic/ Alex pronounced, with childish

finality.

I thought of John Mazzuconi, the Italian missionary

who died a martyr's death in New Guinea at the begin-

ning of the nineteenth century. Mazzuconi wrote, 'It is

wrong to call the ocean immense. I traversed it in three

months in a small ship. If one owned this whole world,

he would own something smaller than a grain of sand. I

wonder why so many fight to have it? Only One is truly

immense, and He is eternal.'

Answers 47

Eusebius and John Chrysostom were both among those

who praised the very young Christian child Barulas, who

was brought before the heathen governor Asclepiades

and asked: 'Which is better: to adore the one God who

made heaven and earth, or a multitude of gods?'

The child replied, 'God is an almighty being. If there

were many gods, they would become powerless, because

the might of one would cancel out the might of another.

God can be only one. Your gods are frauds/

The tyrant demanded, 'Who has taught you these

things?'

He replied, 'My mother, who was herself taught by

God.'

The child was flogged and beheaded.

His mother herself carried him to the place of execu-

tion, and without shedding a tear, kissed him; and,

telling him to remember her in heaven, gave him to the

executioner.

We should not forget that it is to a child that we owe

the writing of the most celebrated book about the holy

Trinity.

Augustine was walking on the seashore meditating on

this great mystery, about which he intended to write a

book; but he could not develop his thoughts clearly. He

was so frustrated that he was almost inclined to abandon

the project.

Suddenly, he heard weeping. Running towards the

sound, he found a child in tears. He asked what was the

matter.

'Look what a big hole I have dug in the sand,' the child

sobbed, 1nit I cannot put the whole ocean in it. Can

you?'

Augustine interpreted the question as a message sent

to him by God Himself. Challenged by it, he wrote the

book, but he wrote it with great modesty, realising that

God is limitless and we are very small. Like the child on

48 From the Lips of Children

the seashore, we can know only a very little about what -

and Who - lies beyond.

During a science lesson in school a pupil asked, 'Why did

God make the earth?'

Before the teacher had a chance to reply, a seven-year-

old boy gave the answer: 'So that people would have

something to stand on.'

He spoke a profound truth. This is why God gave

mankind the Law, the prophets, the Bible - even His own

Son.

A Pentecostal preacher patiently explained to Alex,

who was then five, the doctrines of his Church. He did

so with fervour, repeating again and again that this

was the only correct doctrine and that all others were

heresy.

I wanted to spare this preacher, by giving him the

impression that he was wasting his efforts on a child who

could not understand. So I asked Alex, 'Do you know

what the word "heresy" means?'

He replied straightforwardly. 'Sure I know! When you

have the right faith, you are happy. When heresy arrives,

your head begins to ache.'

The way of salvation is simple: 'Whoever believes and

is baptised will be saved.' Beware of things that cause

headaches!

Listening carefully to a narrative of the events that

led up to the crucifixion, Amélie at six concluded:

The disciples in Gethsemane were right when

they decided to flee. Peter was admonished for trying to

help. So why should the others have stayed? If they

were in the wrong, why did Jesus choose them in the first

place?'

Answers 49

Many a preacher has decried the weakness of the

disciples in deserting Jesus on that dark night in

Gethsemane. Curiously, the Gospels contain not one

word of criticism or rebuke.

The distinguished psychologist Viktor Frankl was asked

by his six-year-old daughter, 'Why do we speak of the

"good" Lord?'

'Some weeks ago/ he reminded her, 'you had measles.

The good Lord made you completely better.'

His daughter frowned. It was the wrong answer. 'But

don't forget, Daddy, it was Him that sent me the measles

in the first place!'

Children are not easily taken in by religious cant

and cheap propaganda for God. They take His words

seriously- 'Come now, let us reason together' (Isa. 1:18),

which means that both sides have a say.

When children ask us why innocent people suffer, we

have to confess to them that we simply do not have an

explanation for this mystery. They do not respond to

theological speculation about the whys and wherefores

of pain.

Can a guinea pig in a laboratory understand its many

sufferings? Is it aware that it serves the good of higher

beings? Our sufferings may be of great value for the

instruction of angels.

Let us not be afraid to admit how limited our human

knowledge is. Children's questions lead to a theology

that compels us to face up to our ignorance of many

aspects of reality.

God is omniscient. We are not.

Six-year-old Alex had been throwing sand at other chil-

dren, and as punishment had to report every day to the

school principal. He asked his mother to write a letter of

apology on his behalf, promising that it would never

50 From the Lips of Children

happen again. With this, the matter was settled. His

father attempted to impress upon him the lesson to be

learned from the episode. 'If you sin, you are hooked/ To

which the reply came, 'But with promises, you can get off

the hook!'

The prodigal son of Jesus' parable got away with even

less. He promised nothing, but just uttered a few words

that showed his repentance. It was enough. He had a

loving father.

Somebody asked a child what one must do before receiv-

ing forgiveness of sin. The candid reply was, 'Sin!' There

could not have been a better answer.

That is why the Catholic Church sings 'Ofelix culpa' -

'O blessed sin, which gave us such a Saviour'.

E. Stanley Jones, the renowned missionary to India, told

a story about a child whose teacher asked him, 'What

would you like for Christmas?'

Looking up at a picture of his father, who was dead,

the child said wistfully, 'I would like my father to walk

out of the frame and be with us again/

Children love their parents by instinct. When you stop

loving your parents, you have stopped being what Jesus

wants you to be - childlike.

One child asked another: 'What does it mean, to be a real

man? Does it hurt?'

The other child replied, 'It hurts a great deal. Grandma

is a real woman, and look how many wrinkles she has!

But only unreal people think that is ugly. I love her!'

A teacher once asked her class, 'What does the Bible

contain?'

Answers 51

A girl replied: 'In our Bible there are a lot of dates,

marriages, deaths, newspaper clippings, a birthday

card, a Christmas card, and that's about all/

Children who are brought up in homes where that is all

they can find in the Bible are in great spiritual danger.

What is in your Bible?

A five-year-old boy had recited his usual bedtime prayer:

'Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to

keep; If I should die—'

Here he stopped, and asked, 'Daddy, what's dying

like?'

'It's dark/ replied the father, for that was all he knew.

The little questioner remained awake in the dark,

sobbing uncontrollably.

Another child had a father who sent him to Sunday

school. He knew that his mother had a terrible fear of

dying. One Sunday he came home from church in great

excitement.

'Mother! You don't have to be afraid of dying any

more, because Jesus went through the tomb and left a

light behind Him!'

Jesus submitted to the power of death, and was en-

tombed. But He had the power of resurrection, and He

promises us this same experience if we commit our lives

to Him.

'Death' is the name given to a deep sleep, by those who

do not know about resurrection. But Jesus has the keys to

the grave. He knows how to give life to those who die.

The proof lies in His empty tomb.

A child who had just said his morning prayers was asked

by his mother, 'What did you pray about?'

T told Him to rest/ he said. 'I told Him to sleep in

peace, because I'm awake now.'

Love calls for reciprocity. Jesus says, 'Come unto Me,

52 From the Lips of Children

and I will give you rest/ May we not say the same thing to

Him, with all our hearts?

A Christian girl was once asked by a friend, 'How do you

begin to love Jesus? I don't love Him - I can't see any

reason why I should. I can't make myself love Him.'

The girl replied, 'Don't try! Just repeat to yourself,

"Jesus loves me," over and over again. It was through

Him that the flowers, the birds, and everything beautiful

were created; He went through a lifetime of suffering,

and died on the cross in great sorrow, for me; He has

prepared for me a heaven of exquisite beauty; He offers

me forgiveness for all my sins and a life full of joy. He

loves me, for sure! Never try to love Him. Just say again

and again, "He loves me/"

Later the other girl confided, 'I love Him.'

What a model of Christian witness! And what a sermon

in miniature!

A father once noticed that his son was reading the Bible a

great deal, and he asked him why. 'I'm preparing for my

final exam/ he said.

His motive was a good one.

Little Alex was asked, 'How would you make a painting

of love?'

'Two people kissing/ he answered.

'How would you paint death?'

'A man lying in a coffin, with a red cross on it. The cross

saves.'

'And how would you paint life?'

'I'd paint a man and the sun.'

It is not just the things that children say that are

remarkable, but also their drawings. Those reproduced

Answers

53

below were drawn by a four-year-old girl whose father

was convicted of raping her repeatedly.

MY MOM

MY DAD

In her drawings the middle part of both bodies is omitted.

It was abhorrent to her to think about that part of the

body. The father has no legs; they are replaced by phallic

symbols. She has scrawled over his face, reflecting the

anger she feels towards him.

If a child knew me as I really am, how would he or she

draw me?

J. Allen Blair told of a proud Sunday school teacher, who

was attempting to explain to children how they should

practise the virtue of obedience.

As he strode up and down the platform, everything

about his outward appearance betrayed his self-esteem -

his head was held high, his chest was thrust out, his

gestures were commanding.

'Now, children/ he boomed, pausing to fix them with

a stare, 'why do people call me a Christian?' He was

54 From the Lips of Children

clearly expecting somebody to respond with 'Because

you are obedient to Christ/

But a boy raised his hand and ventured, 'People call

you a Christian because they don't know you well

enough/

Little children find it hard to disguise their true feel-

ings, especially when they are talking about other

people. Telling falsehoods is something that they learn

later, often out of fear of punishment (though some-

times what is thought to be lying is in fact the child's

imagination).

Adults tend to be much less candid in what they say to

each other's face. Instead they learn the virtue of 'tact',

which is shown up as hypocrisy when they gossip about

an individual behind his or her back.

It is sometimes necessary to meet evil head-on, with a

child's directness. John the apostle, who wrote so exten-

sively and so beautifully about love, nevertheless had

this to say about Diotrephes ('who loves to be first'): 'I

will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping

maliciously about us' (3 John 10).

In the words of a wise man, '[There is] a time to

be silent and a time to speak' (Eccles. 3:7). Children's

theology 'tells it like it is'!

Children know how to apply what they have learned, but

sometimes they do it in unexpected ways.

A boy complained to his mother that his stomach

ached, and she said, 'If s probably because your stomach

is empty. I'll make you a snack/

Not long afterwards, a pastor visited the house. He

mentioned that he had a headache, upon which the child

observed: 'Probably, Pastor, it's because your head is

empty. You should feed it with something/

Answers 55

When pupils in a school in England were asked to name

the person with whom they would most like to be stuck

in a lift, a girl answered, 'A lift specialist!'

In a very real sense, we are all 'stuck' - not in a lift, but

on a planet bent on self-destruction. We go through life

like a train that roars through the darkness towards an

unknown destination. The problems of our own lives are

already too complicated for us, but when they are multi-

plied by the threats of nuclear war, the population ex-

plosion, pollution, increasing immorality, crime and

violence, they are too much to bear. Perplexed and

afraid, we can see no way out.

Jesus is a specialist in human tragedy. His was the most

tragic of all human lives. Poor, oppressed, rejected,

scorned, spat upon, whipped, crucified, buried - He

offered the only solution to the world's problems: the

power of His resurrection.

Let us prefer the Specialist to anybody else!

An atheist once said, in reply to a child who had claimed

to be a Christian, 'I will give you a pound if you can show

me where your God is!'

The child replied, 'I only have a fifty-pence piece, but I

will give it to you if you can show me a place where God is

not/

Addressing a group of schoolboys, a bishop gave the

following example of 'moral courage': 'A boy in a dormi-

tory, who, in front of everybody, kneels and says his

prayers before hopping into bed.'

He asked the boys if they could think of another

example.

'Sir,' a voice piped up, 'a bishop in a dormitory full of

bishops, who hops into bed without saying his prayers/

Bishops and prelates rarely have that courage! But

biblical authors like David, Job and Jeremiah had the

56 Front the Lips of Children

courage to complain to God, using words that to us might

seem blasphemous. We ourselves would probably have

suppressed such thoughts, and the result would have

been that they would have become submerged and un-

resolved within us.

Children teach us to have the courage not only to tell

God that we love Him, but also to argue with Him. In the

words of a hymn, He has 'the answer to all our question-

ings'. By the same token, He will surely accept us when

the questions are hard ones.

Prayers

Nadia reached up and

handed him the

flowers.

I was once a guest in a Christian home. I was rather

depressed, brooding about all the things that I do not

possess.

The children's bedtime arrived. A boy who was not

four years old prayed. 'I thank You, God, for my hair, my

face, my eyebrows, my eyelids, both my eyes, my

cheeks, my nose, my lips, my teeth, my tongue . . .' On

and on he continued, until he had itemised everything

down to the soles of his feet. He finished his prayer with

the request 'Make my Daddy and our guest happy/

His prayer was answered, as I realised that I possessed

58 From the Lips of Children

all the same things that the child did - and mine came in a

bigger size! I was also aware of other aspects of my being,

about which he had not yet learned. But I had never

recited them all in a prayer of thankfulness.

'A little child shall lead them' - even in prayer.

In Sunday school a pastor showed the children a tele-

phone. He explained, 'You speak on the telephone to

people whom you cannot see. It's the same with prayer.

You call God, and He listens. Don't be distressed that you

can't see Him. We speak to people we cannot see, every

day.'

A boy asked, 'Pastor, what is God's telephone

number?'

The pastor could have replied something like this: 'It is

a five-figure number: repentance, faith in Jesus' sacrifice,

love, truth and righteousness.'

During a prayer meeting a restless child continued to

misbehave after several warnings. Finally his exasper-

ated mother said to him, 'Come outside with me. You're

going to get a spanking!'

As he left the boy called out to the group, 'Pray for me!

Mother hits hard!'

Impressed by his plea, his mother decided not to spank

him. When they came back, he greeted the believers with:

T see? Prayer works!'

A girl who had been naughty was sent to bed and advised

to pray to God that He would take away her bad temper.

She knelt and prayed: 'Dear God, please take away my

bad temper. And Mother's.'

We always need to pray from both sides of a situation.

Prayers 59

A child prayed, 'Dear God, please convince Father that

he should not spank me any more. You will remember

that I have already asked You to do this. How many times

do I have to tell You the same thing?'

We can take risks in prayer.

I overheard a girl praying 'Dear God, be nice and obey

your mother/ I remembered that there was a time when

God was on earth in the person of Jesus Christ.

It cannot have been easy either for the virgin Mary or

for Joseph to have such a child. I wonder, did His

uniqueness ever seem to them to be merely self-will? The

fact that there was some distance between the child and

His parents can be inferred from His words to His mother

when He was twelve years old, and she had sought Him

for three days: 'Why were you searching for Me?' (Luke

2:49).

He was obedient, in His own way. But when His

mother asked a special favour from Him at the wedding

in Cana, He answered, 'Dear woman, why do you in-

volve Me?' Perhaps when He was small, Joseph might

occasionally have said to Him, 'Please obey your

mother/

In a morning prayer, little Dorothy said, Thank you,

God, for this beautiful morning. My dog will enjoy it/

She had a breadth of vision. The Bible's vision is even

broader. God feeds the birds of the air and the beasts of

the field, so satisfying their needs. He also makes the sun

shine and the rain fall on the evil as well as the good.

Let us, like this little child, appreciate the joys given to

others, whether or not we share in them.

60 From the Lips of Children

I once stayed in the home of a farmer, whose three-

year-old Carlitos always prayed for 'Daddy, Mommy,

Grandma, the sheep, the goats, the guinea-hen, the

dogs, and the cat/

Do we pray like that, in detail - or in mere generalities,

like 'God bless the missionaries'?

Jesus prayed for Peter by name.

When he was only five, Alex prayed, 'Dear God, take

good care of Father, Mother - and also of Yourself. If

anything happens to You, we'll all be in trouble.'

It was not a unique prayer. Peter the disciple prayed

that Jesus would not go to His death. He was afraid that

their entire group would be in trouble without Him.

We can all pray not only to God, but also for God - that

His name might be hallowed, His kingdom come, and

His will be done.

A father and his little son sat down at the counter of a

small cafeteria for a bite to eat. 'We'll have a silent

prayer,' said the adult, and bowed his head.

Minutes passed. The boy's eyes remained closed.

When he finally looked up, his father asked him, 'What

were you praying about for so long?'

'How could I know how long my prayer was?' asked

the son. 'You told me it was to be a silent prayer!'

He may well have known more about silent prayer

than his father did. A silent prayer is one in which not

only the lips, but also the mind keeps silent. In mental

prayer one should close the mind's door and let no

distracting thoughts enter- not even the thought of time

passing.

The first disciples met behind locked doors out of fear

of the Jews, who could only destroy their bodies. So how

much more carefully should we lock the door when we

pray silently, so that no thievish idea may enter which

Prayers 61

might destroy the soul. The Lord can enter through

locked doors; and we desire no other guest.

Mental prayer means a time that is spent in the

embrace of Jesus, our heavenly Bridegroom. And what

bride, in such an ecstasy, could tell you how long it has

lasted?

During the night a loud knocking sounded at the door of

the Danielsky family in Russia.

'Open up! It's the police!'

The mother whispered quickly, 'What should I do with

the Bible? They'll take it away.'

'Open the door quickly - or we'll break it down!'

Piotr, the little boy, had a sudden idea. He took the

Bible and placed it under the blanket on his sister's doll's

bed. To Nadia, who was even smaller than he was, he

whispered, 'Don't pay any attention to the people who

are coming in. Just carry on playing with the doll, in her

bed.' Quietly, he prayed, 'Lord, please keep the Bible

safe for us.'

It was many hours later that the police left, taking with

them their plunder of hymnals and other books. When

they had gone, Nadia retrieved the Bible from the doll's

bed. The credit belongs to Piotr,' she said.

Piotr replied, 'Let us thank God. I prayed that they

would not find the Bible, and He heard my prayer.'

May we all cherish the Bible as tenderly as Piotr did!

Because of his faith in Christ, Nadia's father was in a

Soviet jail. She was walking one day with her grieving

mother through a meadow.

Turning to her, Nadia said thoughtfully, 'Be at peace,

Mummy. God, who takes care of these flowers, will also

care for Daddy.' She picked a few flowers and prayed:

'Dear God, please make it possible for Daddy to have

these flowers.'

62 From the Lips of Children

The next day she accompanied her mother to the police

station to leave a parcel of food for the prisoner. Nadia

smiled at the officer on duty. 'Do you have any children?'

she asked.

He looked down at her. She was very like the young

daughter he had recently buried.

Nadia reached up and handed him the flowers that she

had picked, saying, 'Uncle, please give these to my

Daddy. You will, surely, won't you?'

The torturer was no match for the little girl. The

prisoner received the flowers.

God does indeed answer prayer.

It was Nadia's birthday. 'Lord Jesus/ she prayed, 'last

year on this day my father brought me a bar of chocolate'

- chocolate is a luxury in Russia - 'but now, he is in jail.

You are my only hope. Please bring me some chocolate.'

Larissa, her older sister, rebuked her. 'We are only

allowed to pray for absolute necessities, not for dainties.'

Her mother agreed. 'We can only ask for food when we

are hungry, or for clothes when our old ones are worn

out. We can also pray for health if we are ill. But I don't

think that chocolate is a necessity of life.'

There was a knock at the door. It was their pastor. He

had known nothing of the birthday, but something had

made him buy chocolate for the children.

It was a lesson for Nadia's family, and for the rest of us.

Our God is a bountiful God! Sometimes He takes delight

in answering prayers for things which are not absolute

necessities.

Once, when Mihai was small, we left him with a baby-

sitter. Before going to bed, he prayed with her. He asked

God to bring us back home immediately.

After the prayer, he said to the babysitter, 'Please open

the door. My parents will be waiting there.'

Prayers 63

We actually were! I had discovered that I had forgotten

to take any money with me.

Mihai was triumphant. 'I knew my prayer would be

answered!'

May we have such childlike faith.

When he was a boy, Robert Louis Stevenson remarked to

his mother, 'Mama, one cannot be good without

praying/

'How do you know, Robert?'

'Because/ he said with an air of great finality, 'I've

tried.'

It might be valuable, I suggest, to try a childish ex-

periment. Decide to spend one whole day without

prayer. Then, in the evening, examine yourself and see

whether you have succeeded in being good without it (Be

honest!).

A little fellow was sent to bed early because he had been

naughty. Soon he reappeared. I've been thinking about

what I did/ he told his mother. 'And I said a prayer.'

Thaf s fine - if you asked your heavenly Father to

make you good/

'Oh no, I said something else; I asked Him to make my

mother put up with me as I am/

In the Greek New Testament, aphiemi means 'to for-

give' and 'to leave'. In the Lord's prayer, the text can be

read either as 'Forgive us our trespasses,' or 'Leave us our

trespasses.'

Each of us is a cluster of selves. One part of me wants to

be forgiven, while another part is very much attached to a

given sin and wants to be allowed to keep it.

One voice in us asks the Father to make us into saints;

another says, 'Put up with me, just as I am/

As adults, we repress this second voice. A child,

lacking our inhibitions, openly expresses this other side

64 From the Lips of Children

of his being. It is better to expose and then expunge our

self-centred attitudes than to repress them and deny that

they exist.

The Psalmist said, 'I... did not cover up my iniquity

. . . and you forgave the guilt of my sin' (Ps. 32:5).

When she was asked whether she prayed every day, a

little girl replied, 'Not quite every day - some days, I

don't need anything.'

She was right not to make prayer just a routine. .But if

we have nothing to ask God for, then let us thank Him for

that! And let us praise Him continually.

* * *

At a family gathering, little Alex prayed aloud as we knelt

together. 'God is great; God is good; and I thank Him for

the food.'

My wife gently chided him. 'Why did you pray like

that? It's not time for a meal.'

'That's not my fault,' Alex responded stoutly. 'I've said

grace, now it's up to you to give me something to eat!'

He had touched on a profound truth. It is written in

Scripture, 'Faith is being sure of what we hope for and

certain of what we do not see' (Hebrews 11:1). Let us

thank God for His blessings whether or not we have yet

received them. Then it is His responsibility to ensure that

we receive them - and He will not fail.

Jesus said, 'Have faith in God ... If anyone . . . does

not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will

happen, it will be done for him' (Mark 11:22-23).

The well-known Christian psychiatrist, Paul Tournier,

tells how as a small boy he used to dream of doing some

great deed.

With a toy construction set, he began to build a

strange machine, bristling with springs and gears.

One day, he confided his ambition to his young

Prayers 65

sister. The machine was to be capable of creating life.

She asked him to explain how it would work, but Paul

was vague about that. He admitted that he would have to

rely on prayer. He would pray hard, and God would

work through the machine.

'If that is so/ exclaimed his sister, 'what are all the

gears for?'

What are our many gears for?

Once we have prayed, we must be patient. Even if it

seems impossible, we must quietly put up with our

impatience and allow God to work. He hears us, and he

answers us.

Billy Graham has five children. One day at family prayers

he was jolted by his son Franklin, who interrupted his

father's exposition of Scripture with the words, 'Daddy,

let's not talk so much - let's pray more.'

Even a child understood that talking to God is more

valuable than mere human talk.

But how we love our own talk!

A friend of ours died in circumstances that caused his

family to doubt his salvation.

Amélie, who was then seven, comforted them with

these words: 'I'm positive that he is in heaven. He was

very nice to me. I prayed for him. I said to Jesus, "God

promised Rahab, who did a favour for some Jews who

were in trouble, that she and all her house would be

saved [cf. Josh. 2]. This man belongs to my household.

He is in my heart." There is no doubt that he is saved!'

When Jesus saw the faith of the men who brought the

paralytic to Him (not the faith of the paralytic himself)

then, we are told, He honoured them with a miracle of

healing on their friends' behalf.

* * *

Allenby was the British general who freed Jerusalem

66 From the Lips of Children

from Turkish rule during World War I, without firing a

single shot.

When he was a boy he used to repeat his evening

prayers after his mother. They always ended with these

words: 'Dear Lord, we would not forget Thine ancient

people Israel. Hasten the day when Israel will again be Thy

people and will be restored to Thy favour and their land.'

What joy it must have given the God of Israel, to hear

an English boy pray such a prayer! In His good provi-

dence, God allowed Allenby to become the man to fulfil

his childhood prayers.

Dwight L. Moody, the noted evangelist, used to go into

saloons with a little boy named Tommy, who really knew

how to pray. If Moody^7 s exhortations met with a cool

reception, Tommy would perch on a barrel of wine and

begin praying aloud. He then kept on praying until he

had 'prayed ouf all the drunkards. Many were converted

through his simple, yet effective, ministry.

A little girl prayed, 'Dear Lord, please make all the bad

people good and all the good people nice.'

We can learn from children how to wrap goodness in

cheerfulness.

When a Rumanian child heard, for the first time, that a

book exists in which are contained the names of all who

will enter Paradise, he knelt and prayed: 'God, please

write me down. My name is Rada Ionescu. I'd better spell

it for you, so that there will be no mistake/ And he

carefully pronounced each letter.

Then he added, 'Other people may have the same

name as me. So, please note my name and address, and

my date of birth, to avoid any confusion.'

Are we as precise and careful in our own relationships

with God?

Prayers 67

An eight-year-old boy in America prayed, 'Father, my

Daddy sometimes lets me sit on his lap and steer the car-

but he puts both hands over mine. Please, put Your

hands over those of the President as he rules our country,

to keep it safe.'

The prayers of young children are often full of insight.

A child knew he had done something very wrong. He

had told his mother a lie. So he prayed, 'O God, make it

not to have happened/

This is not such an unreasonable prayer as it might

seem. God can undo events for us. We regret having

committed a sinful deed. We know it was as red as

scarlet. Remorse cannot undo something done. Repent-

ance obtains forgiveness, but how can the lie, murder,

adultery, blasphemy or whatever it might be, be erased

from history?

God can do even this. He makes sins that are scarlet as

white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).

When Jesus changed water into wine at Cana, it

was into the best wine, which is old wine. The liquid

He gave to the wedding guests was not something

which had formerly been water and had suddenly

become wine. His miracle was profounder than that.

In place of the water was something that had always

been wine.

For King Hezekiah, God caused the sundial to go

back ten degrees (Isaiah 38:8). Suppose this happened

at 6 p.m. Miraculously, it was again 8 a.m. on the same

day. He had said rash words to his wife, he might

have been harsh with a servant, he might have issued

a bad decree - but it was as if things had never

happened.

God gave back to Hezekiah the day that had passed. In

the spiritual realm this is possible. The same can be true

of us in our daily lives. The child was right in praying

'God, make my lie not to have happened.'

Interpretations

"Look, your heads are bent!

You must straighten up too."

A Christian child, aged ten, had been brought up on the

Bible and its teachings about love. But there was a great

deal of quarrelling in his family.

One day, following a harsh exchange of words

between his parents, he approached his father. 'Daddy/

he said, 'please take me to an oculist, and to an ear

specialist/

'Why, son?'

'Well, there must be something wrong with me. I can't

Interpretations 69

see the things I hear in the Bible, and I can't hear the

things I see/

Many of us would have to say the same. Jesus is the

Word who became flesh. Our faith must be seen also in

the flesh.

'Alex, get in the car/ urged his mother. 'I'm taking you to

the doctor.'

'Why?' asked the five-year-old.

'Because of the cough.'

They came from the doctor's surgery to my house. Alex

was happy and carefree. 'The doctor hasn't got a cough/

he told me. 'We went to see him, and he's OK!'

Hearing him say this, I told him once again the story of

my conversion. Somebody who loved my soul brought

me to Jesus, though I felt no need of Him. The friend told

me that I must come to Him because of my sin. But I

emerged happy from that first meeting with Jesus. I had

discovered that He has no sin. He is clean and pure. This

gave me a joy that has lasted for half a century.

If Jesus had committed a single sin, He could never

have helped a single sinner. But because He was without

any sin, the sinner can have confidence that all his

transgressions are forgiven.

The last word is with Alex: 'So it's the same with Jesus

as with my doctor! If you are taken to him with a cough,

you are glad that he hasn't got a cough himself.'

When he was six, Alex sat looking at a picture of

Golgotha. 'They killed the one who was good, and they

killed those who were bad. But this is wrong. They ought

not to have killed the robbers like that. Jesus? Yes. They

were right to crucify Him, because His death opened up

the gates of heaven for us. But robbers should only be

locked up.'

70 Front the Lips of Children

Do we judge and speak evil of good and bad men?

A little French girl named Bernadette told her priest and

her whole village that the virgin Mary had repeatedly

appeared to her. This happened in Lourdes, and since

then the village has become a world-famous place of

pilgrimage.

Catholics believe in the objective reality of Bernadette's

vision; Protestants would prefer to say that she had a

subjective experience, because she was used to venerat-

ing Mary. These differing opinions, however, do not

alter the value of the following episode.

An unbeliever asked Bernadette, 'What kind of ex-

pression did the Virgin have? Was she frowning? Was

she sad? Did she smile?'

Bernadette replied, 'She was smiling.'

Then show me how she smiled. '

Bernadette, so the story goes, smiled with an inimit-

able expression of mingled compassion, tolerance, grief

for sin, painful surprise, and hopeful expectation.

The unbeliever fell to his knees. 'Now I believe!'

I have myself witnessed a similar incident in jail.

Have you ever looked attentively at the smile of a child

who has a personal relationship with the Saviour? In that

smile, all heaven is mirrored.

A girl of ten learned that the gospel must be preached to

every creature, and she came to the conclusion that this

must also apply to stalks of wheat. Were they not created

by God?

But what should she preach to them?

She went into the field, and shouted, The Bible com-

mands us to make His paths straight. Look, your heads

are bent! You must straighten up, too!'

We should call upon everyone to 'straighten up'. And

Interpretations 71

the stalks of wheat? They bow as a mark of gratitude to

the earth, for nurturing them with water and minerals.

My wife and I are Jewish Christians. When Mihai was

five, we took him to the synagogue on Simhat Torah

(literally, 'the rejoicing in the Law'), which is the festival

commemorating the giving of the Law on Sinai. The

scroll of the Law is taken around the synagogue, and the

people, especially the children, press forward to kiss it.

When the procession came near us, Mihai asked me,

'Should I kiss the scroll?'

'If s up to you,' I said. I had previously explained to

him the significance of the day and the ceremony.

The rabbi approached, and lowered the scroll so that

Mihai could kiss it.

'Thank you,' said the child, 'but I will not kiss it.'

The procession came to a halt, and hundreds of pairs of

eyes focused on him in consternation. Mihai, by now

extremely tense, repeated his words: 'I will not kiss it.'

When the service was over, the president of the syna-

gogue, who was a friend of mine, asked Mihai, 'Why did

you do that?'

'Sir/ he said, 'God has given us mothers for kissing.

The Law of God was given to be read and obeyed, not to

be kissed.'

In Orthodox Churches also, the Gospel, luxuriously

bound, is paraded so that all the communicants can kiss

it. Few ever read it, and fewer attempt to obey it.

There is a Jewish legend that Terah, Abraham's father,

was a manufacturer of idols. He made small wooden

figures of the gods and sent his son to the market place to

sell them.

But as soon as the boy Abraham found a buyer, he

would say to him, 'I can see that you are an elderly

person. Perhaps you are sixty or seventy years old.

72 From the Lips of Children

So how can this god which my father made yesterday

possibly help you?'

So he returned home at the end of the day with his

merchandise unsold, and his father would beat him.

One day, he decided to test the reality of these gods for

himself. In Terah's home was a chapel containing a series

of wooden gods, with the figure of the chief god in the

centre. Little Abraham asked his mother to prepare a fine

stew, which he planned to offer as a sacrifice to these

so-called 'heavenly powers'.

He presented the food to the chief god, and knelt

before it to see what would happen. The hours went by

and still the god made no move. Finally Abraham took an

axe and smashed all the gods except the chief one, into

whose arms he placed the axe.

His father returned and found the idols hacked to

pieces. He asked what had happened, and the boy

replied, 'I presented some food to them. They quarrelled

over who should have it, and the big fellow killed the

smaller ones.'

'Don't be stupid,' said his father. 'They can't see, or

speak, or move.'

'Then they are no gods,' replied Abraham, and with a

rapid movement he destroyed the last idol.

Then he wandered far from his father's house, wonder-

ing all the time who had made the world.

He saw the moon rising, and said to himself, 'This

must be he!'; and he adored it. But after a few hours, the

moon set and the sun rose. 'Aha, this must be he!' he

cried, and so he adored the sun.

But the sun also set. Then he thought, There must be

someone who alternates the sun and the moon.'

He passed by a house and noticed a number of white

linen cloths in the garden. Later, returning by the same

road, he saw that the cloths were no longer white but

many-coloured. There was no one to be seen, but he

deduced: 'There must be a man in the house. He is

Interpretations 73

probably a dyer, and he has coloured the cloths. Like-

wise, in the heavens I can see no one, but I can see the

colour of the sky change every day. There must be an

invisible Master!'

And Abraham became a worshipper of the invisible

God.

When Amélie was nine, she came to me one day with a

serious question: 'Grandpa, are we allowed to say some-

thing when we know that God is wrong, or do we have to

swallow our questions and keep quiet?'

I replied, 'Great men of God, like David and Job, spoke

frankly with God when they sometimes had the im-

pression that He was in the wrong. You can do that too.

But what is it that has made you dissatisfied?'

'Two things. Firstly, He ought not to have given com-

mandments. Daddy gives commandments as well. One

should only give advice. Secondly, surely God was

wrong when He said "Love your neighbour as yourself."

We don't love ourselves very well. We torment ourselves

and make our lives unhappy. If we were to love our

neighbours like that, it would be awful for them! We have

to love them better.'

As regards Amelie's first criticism of God, she is cor-

rect; but the fault lies not with Him but with the trans-

lators of the Bible. What we call 'Commandments' are not

commandments at all, but expressions of desires and

enablings. The Hebrew language does not use the im-

perative, but the so-called 'jussive' tense. The prohibi-

tions do not begin with the imperative (which in the

Hebrew is lo), but with al, which conveys a desire.

A correct translation would be, 'Please do not kill/

'Please do not steal/ and so on. Or, more to the point, 'If

you love Me, you will not kill/ and so on.

As regards Amelie's second criticism, she is right

again. To love your neighbour only as well as you love

yourself would be inadequate. Jesus taught a better way:

74 From the Lips of Children

'As I have loved you, so you must love one another' (John

13:34). There is no greater love than to give your life for

another.

After a sermon on obedience, a mother sought to rein-

force the message for her child: Tou heard what the

pastor said - you must obey your parents.'

The child replied, 'You seem to have missed the other

part of the sermon. Are you obedient to father?'

We all have filters; we often hear in sermons only what

suits our interests and inclinations.

A little boy in New York wrote the following letter to

God.

Dear God, if You do all these things, You are pretty

busy. Now, here is my question: What is the best time

for me to talk to You? I know You are always listening -

but when do You listen to New York?

Perhaps it had occurred to the child that God does not

listen to every place at every time. For certain places, it

can be too late for God to listen. It is now too late for

Sodom and Gomorrah for Capernaum and Bethsaida,

just as there was a 'too late' for Esau after he had lost the

blessing.

It is better to make arrangements ahead of time. God

longs for human beings to communicate with Him. He is

so anxious for us to do so that He says, 'Before they call, I

will answer^7 (Isa. 65:24).

A group of children were watching the space shuttle

Discovery taking off like a ball of fire.

A little boy shouted, 'God is putting a new star in the

sky!'

Interpretations 75

You can smile and say, This is a star that will last only

a few days.' But all stars have only a finite existence.

They appear, grow and die, like everything else in our

knowable universe.

But there is a God who has put them into the sky. He

also sends aloft the Discovery, according to laws that He

has ordained, and through the medium of human hands

and minds which are also His creation.

Children grasp this and go straight to the First Cause,

just as the Bible does:

'In the beginning, God' (Gen. 1:1).

Amélie was asked a riddle. A man on a river bank has a

wolf, a lamb, and a cabbage. He wants to get them safely

on to the other bank, and the condition is that he can take

only one at a time in his boat. How is he to do it? If he

takes the wolf first, the sheep will eat the cabbage. If he

takes the cabbage first, the wolf will eat the sheep. He can

take the sheep first, but on the next crossing he will have

to take either the cabbage or the wolf; in both cases, one

of the objects will be eaten on the opposite shore.

Some of the adults who were present hazarded a few

guesses. Finally Amélie said, 'We should hasten the

Lord's return through prayer and preaching, for when

that happens the lion and the sheep will be friends. The

cabbage will be safe, too, because the kingdom of God is

not a matter of food and drink' (cf. Rom. 14:17).

For her, the Lord's return was a certainty, upon which

she counted to solve the problems of life. Sadly, it rarely

enters into the calculations of adults. That is why He will

return for the children of God; for children He counts, He

is important.1

1. If you want to find the original solution of the riddle, remember that

what is taken to the far bank by boat can also be brought back!

76 From the Lips of Children

A four-year-old toddler had his own version of the

pledge to the American flag:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, and

to the Republic for which it stands; one nation under

God, indivisible, with liberty and Jesus [instead of

'justice'] for all.

One morning, a boy said to his father, 'I dreamed about

God last night.'

'What was He doing in your dream?'

'He was locked in a cupboard. He was begging me to

let Him out. What does it mean, Daddy?'

The father could have answered that when we shut

Jesus out of our lives, it is as if we were locking Him in a

cupboard, and all His powers of love and goodness with

Him. Let us unlock the door, and let Him enter our lives.

The Bible uses a slightly different image: Jesus says, in

effect, 'Behold, I stand at the door of your heart and

knock. If you let Me in [He never enters uninvited], I will

come in and eat with you, and share My bounties with

you' (cf. Rev. 3:20).

In Russia some children were taken from parents who

had taught them about God. In the atheistic boarding

school to which they were sent, they were given a doll.

When they thought they were unobserved, the chil-

dren decided to play at 'prayer meetings'. But they found

that the doll's knees did not bend and so it could not

kneel.

One of the children went to the teacher. 'Please can I

have another doll? This one is plain stupid/

'Why do you say that?'

'Well, everyone who does not kneel before God must

be stupid.'

It was a witness to the Communist teacher.

Interpretations 77

A sixteen-year-old Arab father took his baby girl to an

Arab orphanage in Israel. Her fourteen-year-old mother

had died in childbirth. If the child had been a boy, the

father's family would have looked after it, but they had

no use for a girl.

The young father visited the child, Muna, regularly. As

she grew older she looked forward joyfully to his visits,

and would wait for him to arrive, crying 'Baba [Daddy]

comes!'

Every time he came she clung to him, begging him not

to leave, or at least to take her with him.

Eventually he remarried and decided not to visit any

more. His new wife did not want the child, and he could

not bear his daughter's weeping.

Muna was devastated. She refused to eat or drink, and

sat at the door, repeating over and over again, 'Baba

comes.' No one could make her give up her self-imposed

fast. Finally she had to be force-fed.

Still she continued to insist, 'Baba cornes!' A mission-

ary tried to tell her about a heavenly father, but she

would not listen. One Baba had abandoned her. Why

have another, who would probably be no better?

Fortunately the missionary was able to convince her

that the heavenly Father is an entirely different kind of

Baba, a Baba whose love never fails. Muna became once

more a happy child.

Too many of us accept the notion of a heavenly Father

who might forsake us or let us down. Who needs a Father

like that? Have we not been forsaken by enough

humans? Why open ourselves up to another bitter

experience?

But this picture of the heavenly Father is a false one. He

loves to the uttermost. He runs to meet the returning

prodigal. He gives him the finest robe. He kills the fatted

calf in his honour. Then He says, 'What more can I do, to

prove I love you?' (cf. Isa. 5:1-4).

78 From the Lips of Children

When Mihai was four or five, he asked me, 'How was

Jesus born?'

He had heard the story many times, but I told him

again how Jesus was born in a stable, how the shepherds

and magi visited Him, and so on.

'I know all that,' he said. 'But I'm curious about some-

thing else. I've often heard you quote the proverb,

"Whatever is born of a cat, eats mice." But if Jesus had

been born like us, He would have been bad like us. So He

must have been born entirely different.'

Intuition like that has enabled Christians through the

centuries to believe in the revelation of the virgin birth of

Jesus.

The 'Christian Mission to the Communist World',

having received news of a Lithuanian Christian who

had been imprisoned for his faith, sent a parcel to his

mother.

To their great surprise, they received a letter of thanks

from the prisoner himself; because of a serious injury, he

had been released before completing his sentence.

He wrote:

Working as a slave-labourer in a uranium mine, I was

hit by a large chunk of rock. As a result I have become a

hunchback for life.

Naturally, I was deeply depressed. I was in love with

a girl. Would she accept me, with such a deformity?

Who would want to marry a hunchback? I felt like an

outcast. Little children mocked me, crying behind my

back, 'Hunchback! Hunchback!'

One day a little boy stopped me on the street and

asked me, 'Uncle, what is it that you are carrying on

your back?' I thought, Now I will be mocked again. But

nevertheless I replied, 'A hump'.

He looked at me with love. 'Uncle, I don't believe

that. God is love, He does not give people deformities.

Interpretations 79

What you have on your back is a box containing angel

wings. If you carry it with humility and love to the end

of your life, the box will then open; the wings will

unfold; and with those wings you will fly to a beautiful

heaven.'

I wept when I heard those words. Even now I weep

again, as I write these lines.

This Soviet child had within him the Holy Spirit, who in

Scripture is called the Comforter, and knew how to offer

a word of cheer to one in need.

We too have the promise of the same Spirit, and under

His blessed influence, our words can provide comfort

and encouragement.

A sick child was asked how he was feeling. He replied, 'I

suffer, but I suffer little, because Jesus said, "Suffer little,

children, to come unto Me." Only those who think of

their sufferings as little are called/

To this child a comma made all the difference. The

earliest Greek manuscripts have no trace of punctuation.

Jesus cou Id have pronounced the sentence like that!

The parents of President Ronald Reagan did not practise

much religion, but his grandfather did. When the family

were preparing to dine with him, little Ronald's parents

warned him, 'Grandfather always asks every child to

recite a Bible verse at meal time. You must have one

memorised.'

But the future president was only four, so his mother

found him an easy verse to remember: 'Jesus wept' (John

11:35). Ronald was now sure of himself.

At dinner, with ten children sitting at the table, grand-

father asked the first for a verse. 'Jesus wept/ he replied

promptly.

Ronald was in despair. What was he to do now? To

80 Front the Lips of Children

make matters worse, his mother had not been the only

one to find a simple solution to the problem. Two other

children produced the same verse, and grandfather eyed

them with displeasure. Ronald shrank in his chair.

When his turn came, however, he had a sudden

inspiration. Jesus weeps/ he volunteered.

The other children laughed. Grandfather rebuked him:

'That is not written in the Bible!'

Ronald defended himself. 'It may not be written, but it

is true.'

Grandfather was unrelenting: Jesus wept then be-

cause He was at the tomb of a friend. Why would He

weep now?'

'He weeps now/ said Ronald, 'because we children

only know that He wept a long time ago.'

That was a remarkable insight for a child. The Bible

teaches that we are involved with a God who is crushed

because of our adulterous hearts (Ezek. 6:9, nkjv). Our

Lord is also wearied (Mai. 2:17). When on earth, He was a

man of sorrows acquainted with grief. As such, He

represented the heart of God (cf. John 14:9).

At the age of thirty He was told that He looked around

fifty (John 8:57). So much sorrow was visible on His face

that some believed He was suicidal, and asked 'Will He

kill Himself?' (John 8:22). That is not a question that is

asked of somebody who looks cheerful and happy.

It is part of children's theology to seek God's sad-

ness, and to want to make Him rejoice with singing

(Zeph. 3:17).

A four-year-old in an American department store was

given several biscuits, among them one shaped like the

United States. His mother asked, 'What does this remind

you of?'

T know!' he replied, beaming. 'It's the weather.' It had

reminded him of the television satellite picture of the

United States on the evening news.

Interpretations 81

Does the name 'Jesus' remind us of the real Jesus, of

the whole Jesus; or does it only remind us of something

associated with that name?

As a pastor in Rumania during the war, I had only one

suit, which eventually became worn and frayed. I had to

get a new one.

One morning in our family devotions, we read these

words: 'The man with two tunics should share with him

who has none' (Luke 3:11).

Mihai, who was then four, interrupted. 'You've got

two suits now. You should give one to Brother X, who is

in rags.'

'Which one should I give him?' I asked.

'The new one, of course. God always gives the best.'

It was a difficult decision, but I took his words as a

mandate, and the God who gives generously somehow

kept me clothed.

On her first visit to a church with stained glass windows,

a little girl asked her mother who the persons were,

through whom the sun shone.

They are saints/ her mother replied.

She thought about this for a while, then said: 'Now I

understand what being a saint means. It means, to be a

girl through whom Jesus's beauty shines, even if I'm not

beautiful myself/

When one reads the sad biographies and dark episodes

in the lives of some saints, this childish definition

becomes astonishingly perceptive and true.

At our family devotions, we read the song of the virgin

Mary which is known as the 'Magnificat'. Then I said, 'Let

us pray/

82 From the Lips of Children

Amélie, then five, spoke up. 'Isn't what we just read a

prayer? We weren't just reading.'

In her childish thinking she had followed the Scripture

prayerfully. There was no need to begin to pray after the

reading!

No wonder Jesus said, 'Unless you change and become

like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of

heaven' (Matt. 18:3).

Misinterpretations

"In due course a tree will grow."

A father wishing to put his son to the test gave him a

pound coin and a ten-pence piece for the Sunday school

collection. Tut whichever of the two you want to in the

offering/ he said. 'It's your choice.'

When the boy returned he said to his father, 'I listened

to the pastor's advice - and I gave the ten-pence piece.'

'Is that what the pastor really said?'

'He certainly did! He said we should give cheerfully,

84 From the Lips of Children

and it was a lot easier to be cheerful giving the ten-pence

piece!'

We should all give as much as we can cheerfully, but

we have to learn how to give both cheerfully and with

generosity.

In our family, before going to church on Sunday each

grandchild receives from his daddy some money to put in

the offering.

Five-year-old Alex once queried this. 'Why should

I give money to God? Does He want to become a

millionaire? Let's send Him a Bible. You told me that

there's a verse in it that says, "The love of money is the

root of all evil/"

God not only knows but inspired the Bible, and we

need not remind Him of those words. But some pastors

would do well to ponder St. Paul's comment.

I know one clergyman whose small granddaughter

asked him, 'What does the word "allergy" mean?' He

explained it as an aversion to certain foods or medicines.

The child replied, 'I understand, Grandpa. You are

allergic to money.'

If only that were true of all ministers! Too many nowa-

days are preoccupied with their benefits and investment

and properties. Even the clergyman who told this story

said that he felt that this most beautiful compliment was

not entirely true of himself, though he wished it were.

Like many children, Amélie sometimes has a finicky

appetite.

Once I said to her, 'It's not good for you to only eat

dessert. You must first eat your soup and salad, and the

other good things that Grandma prepares.'

She replied, 'I eat as Scripture tells me to/

'What do you mean by that?' I inquired in surprise.

Misinterpretations 85

The Bible says that God prefers the dessert! Look, here

it is, read it/

The verse she actually showed me said that God led

His people forty years 'through the desert' - she had

misread it as 'dessert'.

I smiled, but I could not help wondering whether

perhaps we adults are not sometimes just as guilty of

reading into the Bible what we hope to find there.

The English language, with its many 'homonyms' -

words that sound the same but have very different

meanings - can be very confusing to a young child. A

five-year-old observed, 'It must be very wrong to fly in a

plane. Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always/"

Of course, he had thought it said 'low'.

We smile. But in truth, Jesus is with us only if we

seek the low places. The Bible says that 'in lowliness of

mind' we should value others better than ourselves

(cf. Phil. 2:3).

On the other hand, Amélie once remarked that Jesus

must have enjoyed flying in aeroplanes. Puzzled, I told

her that He never flew. But she insisted that He did, and

pointed to a heading in her Bible: 'Jesus' flight to Egypt',

and to Luke 6:17 where it is said that Jesus 'stood in the

plain'. As his disciples and a large multitude were with

Him, she added, it must have been a large plane!

The subtleties of English spelling had not yet become

apparent to her.

I was reminded of a Russian Baptist who, unlike other

Baptists, insisted on making the sign of the cross. He

justified himself by asserting, 'It is written in the Bible

that we must do so/

In Russian, the word krestitsia has two meanings: to be

86 From the Lips of Children

baptised, and to cross oneself. He had adopted both

meanings of the word.

Schoolchildren were asked to draw the holy family.

One child drew them in an aeroplane. Four heads were

looking through the windows.

Curious, the teacher asked, 'You have Jesus, Mary and

Joseph - but who is the fourth person?'

That's Pontius, the pilot!'

From the mouths of babes have come many versions of

the Lord's prayer. One prayed, 'Our Father, Harold be

Thy name,' and 'Give us this day our jelly bread.'

But are grown-ups any better than children?

When Jesus cried from the cross, 'Eli, Eli,' His hearers

thought He was calling Elijah. How do we listen to the

words of the Bible?

Jesus once asked, 'How do you read it?' (Luke 10:26).

A child who heard that God Himself wrote the Ten

Commandments on tablets of stone observed, 'God must

write with His left hand.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Well, you read to me yesterday from the Bible, that

Jesus sits on God's right hand - so He can't move it.'

To an adult this is an entertaining deduction, but it is

also a correct guess. The Law comes from the side of

harshness, called in the Bible the left side; whereas grace

flows from the right side (cf. Matt. 25:33). The saved are

on His right.

Some children might have theological intuitions, but

since they are human and influenced by the good and evil

to which they are exposed, it is our responsibility to be

careful what we say in their presence.

A teacher asked in class, 'Is the world round?'

Misinterpretations 87

Isaac replied, 'No, Ma'am/

'Is it flat, then?'

'No, Ma'am.'

'Well,' demanded the teacher, 'if it is neither round nor

flat, what is it?'

Isaac was equal to the challenge: 'My Papa says it's

crooked.'

Another child was asked, 'Where do you live?'

'In hell,' was the startling reply.

Next he was asked, 'Who is your father?'

The devil.'

The teacher was shocked. 'How can you say such

things?'

'It's what my mother says, all the time.'

Children can receive negative images from us - of the

world, mankind, the Church, clergy, rulers, our nation.

If they do, we will be held responsible for their

negative or false theology.

It is wrong to criticise churches, clergy or grown-ups in

the presence of children.

During World War II, a child in an American home heard

only the worst about Germans from the tender age of

two. Since there was no television, the child could not

possibly understand what a 'German' actually was.

But once her mother warned her, 'Be careful; there are

germs on the plate.' Now she knew. When her father

came into the room, she announced, 'I've got Germans

on my plate!'

Be careful of what you tell children. If you stir up

disgust in them for a certain category of men, they may

unintentionally project it on to others who are related to

them perhaps only by a syllable.

88 From the Lips of Children

At the age of six, Amélie was more charitable towards

sinners than were most of her elders. 'I don't believe

there is a hell/ she said. 'Bad men enter Paradise as well -

but with a sad heart.'

Concerning the existence of hell, there has been much

debate. Is it a place, or simply a horrible state of mind

experienced by those eaten with remorse, with no hope

of reparation or restoration?

When St. John Chrysostom was asked which of the

two he thought was true, he answered, 'I don't speculate

about hell. I shun it!'

At seven, Amélie approached me one day and asked me

to baptise her dog.

'Honey, only humans are baptised, not dogs.'

'Why?'

'Because dogs can't tell the difference between good

and evil. They are not responsible.'

She was thrilled. 'If my dog has no sin, then it will

surely be with me in the resurrection!'

Does not Isaiah 11 describe the messianic kingdom as

belonging also to sheep and tame wolves, which will be

led by a little child?

Children's questions are sometimes perceptive, and

sometimes foolish and perplexing. Amélie once stumped

me with: 'Grandpa, why don't you bow to windows?'

'Wherever does the Bible say such a foolish thing?'

She promptly showed me: 'Honour widows.' With her

limited vocabulary and experience - she knew nothing

about widows - she had given the printer the benefit of

the doubt and supplied the 'missing' letter. She wanted

to fulfil a commandment which she thought she had

found in the Bible, even though it made absolutely no

sense.

Misinterpretations 89

When it comes to fulfilling God's commands - do we

lean on our own understanding?

Jewish theology distinguishes between mitzvah, a com-

mandment that is intelligible, and chok, a commandment

for which we can see no reason but which must be

fulfilled because God says so.

Members of a family were discussing the Christmas

story. The mother asked the others why they thought

Jesus was born in a stable.

Seven-year-old John answered, 'Because there weren't

any doctors at that time/

'But/ countered his mother, 'God could have provided

a nice place for Him to be born in if He had wanted to/

'Well/ reasoned John, 'God was in Mary's tummy, and

He couldn't work out anything from there/

We know of no high thoughts or great deeds on Jesus'

part while He was in Mary's womb. Some keep Him

locked up in a closet, and then wonder why he does not

perform miracles.

Eight-year-old Amélie confided one day, 'I love a boy

who is in my class, and I told him so.'

'What did he say?'

'He said he couldn't stand me, and he hit me on the

head as well/

'Well then, you had a chance to obey Jesus' advice to

respond with love!'

'But Jesus told us to turn the other cheek when some-

body hits you on the cheek. He didn't say what to do when

somebody hits you on the head. So I did the same thing

to him, and now he won't forget me/

Children, like us, have a tendency to pharisaism. They

also have their own excuses for evading the universal

duty of love, which applies in all circumstances when

90 From the Lips of Children

there is no specific commandment covering an unex-

pected situation.

A boy of six saw a skeleton for the first time and wanted

to know what it was.

Those are the bones of a man who has died/ he was

told.

'Oh/ he commented, with childish logic, 'so it's just

the fat that goes to heaven!'

In this case the child was wrong in his theology. Fat can

be an impediment to entering heaven: 'Small is the gate

and narrow the road that leads to life' (Matt. 7:14).

Delicacies and luxuries must be left to others if we are to

advance along that narrow way.

A Baptist child in America was baptised at the early age of

six, on a particularly cold day. Next day he sang with his

family the hymn 'Holy, holy, holy', which ends with the

words, 'God in three persons'. The child sang, 'God in

four persons.'

When he was chided for this, he said, 'But I was

baptised in the names of four persons. When the pastor

immersed me, he said "In the name of the Father- Brr! -

the Son - Brrr! - and the Holy Spirit - Brrr!" '

The pastor had shivered aloud, and the child, too

overwhelmed by emotion to register the chill of the

water, had assumed that 'Brrr' was the name of a fourth

member of the Trinity.

In Communist countries, where the underground

Church has no baptistries, believers in winter make holes

in the ice through which to baptise.

In Western countries, we should not only count our

blessings, but also ignore our inconveniences.

Misinterpretations 91

During family devotions a child heard that we are made

of dust and, when we die, return to dust. A little later he

commented, There's a man under my bed who's either

being born or dying/

'What do you mean?' queried his startled mother.

There's a lot of dust under my bed!'

Another child was taught that Adam became a living soul

when God breathed His spirit into him. He sighed: 'So

God is dead/

The child could not be convinced otherwise: 'Anyone

who gives up his spirit is dead/ he explained.

At five, Mihai asked me where apricot trees come from. I

told him, 'You have to dig a hole in the ground, put an

apricot stone in it, cover it and then water it. In due

course a tree will grow/

Excitedly he summoned his brother and together they

followed my instructions. After watering their buried

treasure, they dug it up again immediately to see

whether a tree had begun to grow. Naturally, they were

greatly disappointed.

Children in this respect make the same mistakes as

adults. We all rush to see results. God made the world in

six days, not one.

When I read to Mihai from the book of Joshua, about how

God ordered wars, his comment was, 'This must have

been before God repented and became a Christian/

Christians should take care not to read the writings of

the Old Testament undiscerningly.

Children, it seems, sometimes know only too well how to

be deceitful.

92 From the Lips of Children

A Slovak nun, a primary school teacher, tells of an

amusing incident. She was distributing sweets to the

children on St. Nicholas' day. One child, Stanko, was ill,

so she gave a slipper full of sweets to another boy, John,

to take to him.

When Stanko was better, she asked him if he had

enjoyed the present. He claimed that he had never

received it. So she decided to confront the two boys.

'I gave them to you/ said John, pointing to himself.

'I didn't get anything/ protested Stanko.

But John, pointing to himself again, repeated, 'I gave

them to you. Don't you call me "you", when you speak to

me? Well then, I gave them to "you". I carried out my

assignment/

Once I had to speak to an American pastor about his

financial dealings, which were not above board. He said,

'You don't understand the Bible at all. All money belongs

to God. I am God's child. Whaf s wrong with depositing

God's money in the bank account of one of His beloved

children? We Christians all belong to one body. It only

seems that I have dishonestly taken for myself something

that belongs to another. We are one; the money belonged

to a member of the body; and after I have taken it,

continues to be the property of the same body - though of

another member/

Such deceptions are amusing in children, but in adults

they are criminal.

As we seek to become like little children in matters of

faith, let us at the same time remember that all of us,

children as well as adults, have sinned. We do well to

shun childish foibles, while emulating childlike faith.

The greatest danger in children's theology lies in the fact

that they are prone to gullibility. Because of their trusting

nature, they are easily led astray. The suggestibility of all

human beings is limitless, but it is greatest in children.

Two small boys were discussing the myth of Icarus.

Misinterpretations 93

There was once a prisoner who wanted to escape. He

stuck some feathers on himself with wax and flew. But he

went so near the sun that the wax melted, the feathers fell

off and he fell into the sea!'

'Is that a true story?'

'Of course it's true! It's in my history book.'

Another boy was a member of the Orthodox Church;

he was sure that St. George really did kill a dragon,

because he had seen ikons portraying the victory.

We can learn a great deal from children, but let us grow

in understanding and not be taken in by every wind of

doctrine, nor be led astray from the truth and go after

fables (cf. 1 Tim. 4). Furthermore, let us not demand of

our pastors that they 'tell us pleasant things' (Isa. 30:10).

A child asked his father, 'Why are all the pastors in

America either white or black? Why aren't there any

green pastors?'

'Where did you find such a silly idea?' laughed his

father.

'Daddy, you read yesterday from Psalm 23 that He

leads us to green pastors.'

This urban child did not know what a pasture was, and

could not relate to it.

Pastors must be very careful to communicate effec-

tively. Even adults can misunderstand what they are

told, thinking only in terms of their own theological

vocabulary - obviously more limited than that of the

pastor. They relate what he says to what they know.

I was born a Jew. The Christian language was com-

pletely foreign to me. When at the age of twenty-seven

I entered a Christian church for the first time and heard

the congregation singing of 'the lamb of God', I whis-

pered to my wife, 'These are the idolators of old who

worship animals!'

Children's misapprehensions should serve as a re-

minder to theologians and preachers, to speak the truth

94 From the Lips of Children

plainly. They are handling matters of eternal signifi-

cance.

'God must have an awfully big stomach/ said a little boy

returning from church.

'Why?' asked his mother.

'Because the Bible says, "In Him we live and move and

have our being." ' (Acts 17:28).

Another boy aged four observed that God must have

many ears, because He has so many prayers to listen to at

once.

The Hindus paint Krishna with many arms, because

God has to help many people simultaneously.

Children, and primitive religions, have sensed a truth:

heavenly beings have many more organs for perceiving

reality than we do.

It is written of the cherubim that 'their entire bodies,

including their backs, their hands and their wings, were

completely full of eyes' (Ezek. 10:12). They also have four

faces, with ears, noses and mouths on each.

If this is true of His heavenly creatures, one can be sure

that God is even better equipped for hearing, seeing and

handling everything. Children can be reassured about

God's capacity to take care of them. There is no need to

worry that a prayer will go by unheard.

Versions

Back to playing with toys.

I taught little Alex the verse, 'He shall pray unto God, and

He will be favourable unto him' (Job 33:26, av). But the

word 'favourable' did not exist in his six-year-old vo-

cabulary. When he came to recite the verse, he said, 'He

shall pray unto God, and God will pray unto him.'

He could not understand why his 'version' was wrong;

it tallied with his experience. 'I pray to God and tell Him

what I desire. Then He prays to me and tells me what He

desires. I tell Him I love Him; He tells me the same thing.

He prays even better than I do!'

We have a problem; we need a sense of purpose in life,

something to live for. Jesus has a problem; He needs

workers in His kingdom.

96 From the Lips of Children

We pray to Him about our problems. He also speaks to

us through the Bible, the Church, His special servants, an

inner voice, the events of life; sometimes even visions

and dreams.

Ultimately the child was right. We pray to Him, and He

tous.

Sometimes children have unusual insights. An eight-

year-old girl said, 'I wonder why all these people are

talking about their experiences with Jesus? I never had an

"experience". He told me to come; and I came. He said,

"I will give you rest," and He gave it to me. I wonder also

why they bother Jesus so much. He gave them rest; they

should give Him rest, too/

There are often guests in my home. The conversation

ranges over many subjects. Once I and a fellow-Christian

were discussing some philosophical problems. Ten-year-

old Amélie was quietly playing with her toys in the same

room.

I remarked, 'Every point of view is actually a "point of

blindness", for it blinds you to every other point of view.

If you look at the ceiling of a room, you cannot see the

floor, and vice versa. If you look at the right side of the

room you cannot see the left. Each point of view of a

party, religion or social class diminishes your ability to

see with equal clarity a different point of view. Only an

overall intuition can get at the truth/

To our surprise, Amélie interrupted. 'Only to see the

whole is still blindness. It keeps you from recognising

that there is not just the whole but also the parts, which

are different from each other. The "whole" is an abstrac-

tion, which means it is only part of reality. The truth

comprehends all the parts and their sum, in a totality/

Now I cannot vouch for the fact that these were her

Versions 97

exact words, as I had no tape recorder running. But the

thought here expressed was very definitely hers.

Everyone in the room was stunned for a moment.

Amélie went back to playing with her dolls.

A multitude of Christians are now so enamoured of

ecumenism that they can see only the whole as the

representation of true Christianity. But individual de-

nominations are as legitimate a part of the truth as is the

sum total of which they are part - and even that state-

ment assumes that an organic whole is a possibility and

that it would be recognised as such.

Let us pursue Jesus' desire that all Christians should be

one. Let us also value the certain truth that we have in our

own denominations. Christianity would not have de-

nominations were it not for the good of those who love

God, though we do not yet understand the mystery that

lies behind it.

But a child understood.

A six-year-old girl had heard the story of the annunci-

ation of Mary, and asked her father, 'What is a virgin?'

He replied, 'It's a kind of forest. Look at these pictures

of virgin forests in the Amazon. They are forests never

penetrated by man.'

'Oh!' exclaimed the girl. 'Then the angel saw her as a

virgin, alone in such a forest with no man ever to hug her.

So he came to spend an hour with her and tell her

beautiful things. Angels are neatY

Five-year-old Alex thoughtfully remarked, 'God will

have to be patient with me when I become an angel. I

won't be able to fly very well. I expect it is like skating -

you fall over a lot before you get good at it.'

Later he wondered, 'Aren't fallen angels merely angels

who are just starting out?'

The point about fallen angels is of course far-fetched.

98 From the Lips of Children

But Christians begin angel-like lives here on earth. Like

children, they should not be discouraged if they do not

become instant flying experts! It takes a great deal of

practice to develop spiritual as well as physical skills.

When Mihai was six, I attempted to impress upon his

young mind the truth of John 3:16, that God gave His

only Son to die for us.

'Isn't it wonderful?' I asked, and was taken aback when

he calmly replied, 'Not at all.'

I was surprised, and insisted that he explain what he

meant, and he readily did so. 'It is wonderful when a

poor man gives a large gift to the Church. But large gifts

are normal for a rich man. For God, it must be the normal

thing to give the best/

Since we belong to God's family, it should be normal

for us to give of our best too.

A child of five, on hearing the Christmas story, com-

mented, 'See what the angel wants you to understand.

The news of Jesus' birth was a great joy only to people.

For the angels, it was a great sadness. They were going to

be without Him for a long time.'

May we too always be aware of how angels feel about

what happens to us! Sin gives us pleasure; if it did not, we

would never sin. But it grieves the angels.

An eleven-year-old boy once acted the role of Joseph,

Jesus's adoptive father, in a Sunday school Christmas

production. When he discussed with his parents what

sort of shoes he should wear, they suggested sandals. He

wanted cowboy boots. When his father explained that it

was unlikely that Joseph would have worn cowboy

boots, the boy replied, 'Yes, but he didn't have braces on

his teeth, either!'

Versions 99

He had understood that biblical personalities can be

represented in a contemporary way.

Some believers do not accept this. A lady once said to

me, 'My daughter claims to be a believer, but she is not

born again. Look how short her dress is - and how bare

her arms!'

I pointed to the picture of her mother that hung on the

wall. It was taken in the last century. The lady wore a

dress as long as a nun's habit.

'What you yourself are wearing/1 pointed out, 'would

have seemed like a mini-skirt to your mother. You have

to accept the fact that your children may hold to the same

faith as you do, but in forms other than those to which

you are accustomed.'

The twelve-year-old son of a doctor learned in Sunday

school that Jesus was delivered up to death out of envy

(cf. Matt. 27:18). When he was asked why Jesus was

crucified, he replied, 'Well, in the Bible it says it was

because of envy. Doctors were mad at Him because He

healed people for nothing. If there were many like Him,

my father would be broke.'

A pastor's son contributed, 'He also deprived priests of

their income by forgiving the sins of men who had not

brought a sacrifice. Was Jesus right to take away the jobs

of men like that?'

Albert Schweitzer, like many hundreds of self-

sacrificing physicians, did not use his medical knowledge

as a means of making money. On the contrary, he served

the poor while remaining in poverty himself. Likewise,

many pastors have been more concerned about

preaching the gospel and ministering to others, than

about looking for high salaries and personal well-being.

Somebody asked a child what it is like when you die.

'When you die,' he replied, 'God takes care of you, just

100 From the Lips of Children

like your mother did when you were alive - except God

doesn't yell at you all the time.'

Ought we not to make sure that children do not see

such a contrast between God and ourselves?

God is perfect. Since we are Christians, children can-

not see why we are not perfect too. Jesus said, 'Be ye

perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect' - perfect

in this respect at least, that we do not yell at our children.

During the Nazi era, a great many members of my family

were killed for the crime of being Jewish. When the

slaughter began, Mihai was only two. He grew up in our

home, constantly hearing conversation about killing. It

seemed that whoever entered our home spoke only

about relatives and acquaintances who had been mur-

dered. The concept of actual killing was as familiar to

Mihai as toy soldiers and toy wars were to other children.

One evening, after we had prayed together before

bedtime, he asked me, 'Will we be killed too?'

He was only four.

I replied, 'Possibly.'

'How will it happen?'

'The police will come and take us away in a car/ I

explained.

Mihai had never been in a car. In Eastern Europe

pastors had no money for bus fares, let alone for cars. He

rejoiced. 'And will they drive us around much?'

'Quite a lot; to the edge of town.'

'And then what?'

'And then they will shoot us all with a machine gun.'

He was silent for a few moments. Then he said earn-

estly, They will kill us a little, and then we will be

resurrected much - and we will go to heaven. The police

cannot follow us there because they don't know about

the ladder that reaches up to the sky.'

Versions 101

The Soviet Baptist Peters was killed while transporting

Bibles which had been printed in secret. As his wife

wept, their four-year-old child asked, 'Mother, is heaven

a very bad, ugly place?'

'What makes you ask such a foolish question?'

'I can't understand why you're crying, now that Daddy

has gone to a place like Paradise, which you both always

told me was lovely.'

Compare what these children say with the words of a

pastor I read about. He was asked at a party, 'Can one be

sure? Where do you go, Pastor, when you die?'

'To heaven, of course,' replied the pastor. 'But why

should we talk about such a sad subject as death?'

For a Christian, 'death' is quite the wrong word. It

means passing to a much better life. 'He is not the God of

the dead, but of the living' (Matt. 22:32).

Often children do not 'put the lid on' the dead, but

speak of them as if they were still living.

Alex once prayed at the meal table, 'God, thank you for

the food. Please feed those in heaven also, especially

General Eisenhower and George Washington/

At the age of eight Amélie prayed for a multitude of

friends - and also for the well-being of St. Paul. I asked

her why. She answered, 'Paul finishes an epistle by

saying "Pray for us," and that includes the other

apostles. Mustn't we obey everything in the Bible? It

doesn't say anywhere that we must stop praying for

them when they die.'

A family had moved into a new house which was far

more luxurious than the one they had lived in previously.

The child wandered round admiring all the new and

different things, and finally exclaimed, "What beautiful

things we have now!' He would never have thought

to say to his father, 'These beautiful things belong to

you.'

102 From the Lips of Children

The child understood what the Bible says: 'All things are

yours . . . and you are of Christ' (1 Cor. 3:21,23).

In Russia, schoolchildren are taught that man has

descended from apes.

A child stood up and said, 'Thank you, teacher, for

giving us this explanation. I always wondered how Com-

munists could be so wicked. I never knew but now you

have made it clear. You are wicked because you come

from gorillas/

Another child in Russia reacted differently when told

of his alleged descent: 'That can't be true. I've seen apes

in the zoo and they're delightful creatures. It is a pleasure

to see them jumping around, they grin at children, they

are grateful if you give them a nut. I can't believe that

wicked Communists could have descended from such

happy creatures as apes.'

Rumania is an Orthodox country. In such countries it is

the custom for the priest to go from house to house with a

cross in his hand, blessing the family, on the first day of

every month.

Little four-year-old Gaby was stopped by a priest in the

street. He held out the cross towards her so that she could

kiss it.

Looking up at him gravely, she asked, 'Why should I

kiss it? The cross doesn't need my love. You do/ Where-

upon she reached up, grabbed hold of the priest's beard,

pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him right on the

mouth.

The words might have seemed impolite, the gesture

forward. But oh! If we could lavish on our fellow human

beings the love we show for mere things, how much

brighter this world would be! I know many Christians

who are attentive to the words of Scripture, but deaf to

the heart-cries of those around them.

Versions 103

It is not the cross, but the Man of the cross who needs

our love. And Jesus said in effect, 'Inasmuch as you have

shown love to your fellow man, you have shown it to

Me/

The child was right.

When he was five, Mihai said to me, 'Father, I was

smarter than you! When you were young you sinned and

then later you repented. I was born a Christian from the

very beginning/

A professor of religion once asked his class, 'How

many of you were born Christians?' Several hands went

up. He smiled tolerantly, then commented, 'No, you

weren't. You were born miserable sinners like all the rest

of us.'

We are not born sinning, but we are born sinners; we

need the grace of God to enable us to become Christians.

Through dedicated Christian parents, this grace can be

mediated to children at a tender age.

In this regard, Mihai had not been smarter than me!

Amélie wanted to know how Jonah managed to get out of

the fish.

Alex, with the confidence of a six-year-old, had an

explanation: 'Jonah was a prophet - that means he was

smart. When he boarded the ship he knew that ships

sometimes sink and that he might then be swallowed by a

fish. So to be on the safe side he put some red pepper in

his pocket. He put the pepper in the fish's nose and that

made it sneeze. Then he could slip out.'

We smile leniently at the naivety of a child, but how

prepared are we for emergencies? More to the point - do

we arm ourselves daily for the battle with evil? The Bible

describes in precise detail the armour that will help the

Christian to cope (cf. Eph. 6:13-17).

104 From the Lips of Children

At seven Alex loved football, and tried to explain it to his

Grandpa - who was not really interested: 'During the

game it sometimes seems that your team is losing, but in

the final minutes the game can turn and you can finish up

as the winner. If s the same in the game between God and

the devil. On Good Friday it seemed that God had lost.

Jesus had died on the cross. But then God turned things

round, and on Easter Sunday He put the ball in the

devil's goal! God came out the winner/

Let us never say 'We have losf or 'We are lost'. The

Referee has not yet blown the final whistle.

Six-year-old Alex was much impressed by a film about

chivalry.

'When I'm big I'll be a knight/ he decided. 'Then I'll

have to fall in love with a lady. But Grandpa, don't be

frightened. When you fall in love, you don't fall down

and break your bones. You fall up!'

A small boy once said something to another which he had

probably heard from his parents: Tour God is evil.' Such

words never come from the heart of a child.

The young Christian replied, 'Really? Then let's work

together to make Him good.'

'That's stupid. We can't decide how God should be.'

The Christian child (who was perhaps eight years old)

said, 'Sure we can. God was once a boy like you and me,

in the house of Joseph and Mary. They taught Him every

day by word and example to be loving, good, honest and

hard-working. If Jesus had been born in some other

home, wicked parents might have taught Him swearing,

lying, stealing and drinking. We can teach God.'

This was a child's way of expressing thoughts which

are too profound for words.

The Bible says that we can 'magnify God - which

means, to make Him bigger. Bigger in what? We can

Versions 105

make Him rejoice with singing (Zeph. 3:17). We can

make Him very sad. We can provoke Him to wrath. We

can decide how God should be. God is love - but so much

depends on our response.

Reactions

Little Alex injured himself

climbing a fence.

A child, who was expelled from Sunday school for being

naughty, cried, 1 want my money back!'

I once did the same. I was at a Sunday morning service

in a church in Boston, Massachusetts. The customary

offering was taken, and I put some money on the plate.

Then the pastor preached a sermon against Richard

Nixon.

Though I had not voted for Nixon, I was not at all

disposed to sit through a sermon against him in the

morning worship hour. I bore with the minister for some

ten minutes, then stood up and interrupted him: Tlease

start speaking about God' (he had mentioned neither

God nor Christ).

The pastor was unnerved, and shouted back, 'I have

the right to say what I like/

I replied, 'Not so, sir! When I ask for cheese at a

grocers, I get cheese; if I ask for tomatoes I get tomatoes.

The store belongs to somebody else but because I am

Reactions 107

paying, I am considered the boss. I've paid here, too. I

put money in the offering plate on the assumption that I

would get my money's worth of knowledge about God. If

you want to talk about Richard Nixon that's all right by

me, but then please give me my money back.'

I had applied the principle of children's theology. If

there were more children in the churches, pastors would

have to give proper value, or go broke!

We were walking in a park with Mihai, who was probably

four years old at the time. At one point he had to be taken

to a public lavatory. As he left he said, 'The lady in charge

is a very good Christian. She allows people to make her

home smelly. She couldn't be nicer.'

What a beautiful image of a Christian, who is friendly

and hospitable even to those he finds repulsive! He

remembers that Jesus showed compassion for the poor,

the unlovely, the weak; and that He invites to His ban-

quet those from the byways as well as the highways.

When Mihai was small I once spanked him for some

minor transgression. If you beat me again/ he told me, 'I

might die. How sad you will be then!' He was genuinely

not thinking about his own discomfort, but about my

sadness.

I was deeply moved.

When I myself was later passing through great suffer-

ing, I surprised myself by saying the same words to God,

echoing those of Job: 'You will search for me, but I will be

no more'(Job 7:21).

When somebody wrongs us, we would do well to

disregard our own afflictions and think rather of the

harm our adversary does to himself, and of his future

regrets.

108 From the Lips of Children

At the end of World War II, posters were displayed in

all the trams and buses, portraying hanged men. It

was effective propaganda for capital punishment of war

criminals.

One day, travelling in a tram with Mihai, I noticed that

he kept his eyes covered with his hand the whole time.

When I asked him why he did so, he replied, 'I don't

want to look at evil.'

It is recorded that Jesus knew no evil. It is far better to

have no knowledge of evil, than to know it and reject it.

When Mihai was five, I rebuked him for a sin. 'God has a

book, and in that book there is a page with your name on

it. There He writes down all your sins. There was one the

day before yesterday, another yesterday, and now you

have sinned again.'

He replied, 'Do you believe that God only writes down

the bad things I do? Doesn't He write down the good

things as well?'

He was right. The image of God as a policeman who

books one only for law-breaking is wrong - and harmful.

A child was given two coins, one for himself, the other for

the offering in Sunday school. Clutching them in his

hand, he trudged off to church. On the way he fell over,

dropped the coins, and could only find one of them

again.

'I'm sorry, God/ he said, 'but your coin is missing.'

Children can sometimes be selfish - just like their

parents!

When Mihai was small he could not be dissuaded from

coming with us to all-night vigils, though he sometimes

fell asleep half-way through them.

He would complain that the services were too short.

Reactions 109

He often said, 'Being in church is being with God, so why

not spend all our lives there? The church should be our

playground.'

He certainly acted as if it were, and could not under-

stand why everyone was so serious in church.

One Sunday morning he disrupted the whole service

with his noisy playing. By the time we got home I had

decided to punish him.

'Do you think it is nice that only the pastor's son

misbehaves in church?' I demanded.

He replied, 'You think I wasn't listening to the sermon.

But I know every word of it.'

'Very well; what was it about?'

'You spoke enthusiastically about forgiving somebody

who has sinned/ he replied. 'So you ought to do that

now.'

There could be no arguing with such words!

Almost since the day she was born, Amélie has heard

stories about Jesus. I have sometimes wondered what the

name could mean to a very small child, to whom so much

remains yet to be told.

When she was two, I showed her a picture of Jesus for

the first time, and pronounced His name, pointing to His

bleeding heart. She became very serious, and spon-

taneously kissed the picture twice, though she had never

seen anyone do such a thing.

Even at that early age, she knew that Jesus was a

person to be cherished.

Speak to babies about Jesus. Speak in their presence

about His glory! One cannot tell how early their under-

standing begins.

When Amélie was three my wife gave her a sweet. The

child took another piece from the box and gave it to me.

110 From the Lips of Children

Gently refusing it, I explained, Today is Friday. This is a

day on which we do not eat/

Of course, she asked why. I told her what fasting is,

and explained that it is an old Christian custom not to

eat on Friday, the day on which Jesus was crucified.

(This fast is particularly observed by the persecuted

Church.)

Amélie gave both sweets back to her grandmother,

saying, 'I will fast too.'

A boy wrote God a note: 'Dear God, church is all right,

only the services are very boring. Can you write some

new songs? Your friend, Barry.'

True religion is never boring, because its focus is on a

lovely person. The psalmist wrote, 'Sing to the Lord a

new song' (Psa. 149:1).

Dorothy, a girl of six, protested when her mother insisted

on treating her doll Elizabeth just as a doll.

'She's not a doll; she's a girl. I can tell. If she were a doll

I would not put her nappy on, so you see - she's not a

doll/

The way I treat a person affects how I think about him.

If I treat him badly I will begin to think of him as an

enemy.

If we get into the habit of following a false god, we

begin to think of it as real because we worship it. That is

how false religions begin. That is how the nightmare of

Jonestown started.

We should become like little children in matters of faith

and trust, but not in everything. Our powers of reason

and discernment must mature.

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Somebody asked a minister's nine-year-old son, 'Have

you decided what to be when you are grown-up? Will

you be a pastor like your father?'

He answered, 'I don't think so. Ministers work too

much and don't get paid much. My father could have

made more money as a plumber/

Another boy of six was invited to dinner along with his

parents. During the meal, he announced loudly to the

hostess: 'You sure don't know how to cook!'

Jesus tells us to become like little children, honest and

forthright - but not naughty and mean-spirited. The

truth should always be seasoned with politeness and

kindness.

One of my nieces had several guests at a time when her

husband was abroad. Being short of accommodation, she

explained to Alex, then five years old, 'You'll have to

sleep with me in my bed.'

'I can't do that/ protested Alex. 'We're not married!'

Would that those who are much older had such strong

principles!

Valladares, the Christian poet, spent twenty-two years

in Cuban jails. In prison, he was married. On his release

friends prepared a bedroom for the couple, who had not

yet enjoyed the privileges of their relationship.

'I cannot sleep with her yet,' he said gently. 'We

only had a civil marriage. I will wait for the religious

ceremony/

He and Alex shared the same theology.

My son and daughter-in-law once took the children to a

restaurant that was not very impressive from the outside.

Alex asked his father, 'Why are you taking us to such a

shabby place?'

But once inside, they saw that everything was clean

and pleasant.

112 From the Lips of Children

Alex asked to be allowed to say grace. 'I thank You,

God/ he said with childish candour, 'for the lesson You

taught me today, that I should not call somebody or

something ugly because of its outward looks. Help me

always to see the inside.'

Man sees not as God sees, for God looks at the heart.

Let us not be hasty in our judgements.

Victor, a Jewish child of five, was being driven past a

church. 'Father, let's stop here a while and see how God

is today.'

Do we go to church with such a purpose?

Victor also took part in a Christian prayer meeting, in

which every prayer began with 'Lord Jesus. . / Puzzled,

he asked, 'Where is God in your prayers?' It was a valid

question; Jesus taught us to pray 'Our Father^7, and to

approach the Father 'in My name'. He never taught us to

pray to Himself.

A twelve-year-old Jewish child was told the story of Jesus

and was warned, 'Know that if all those things are true,

and you don't believe them, you will perish.' He replied

to the teacher, 'Know by the same token, sir; you will

perish if those things are untrue and you have believed

them.'

We all need to ask the age-old question, 'What is

truth?' However, unlike Pilate, we should follow it

through and not rest until we have found out the answer.

But the primary question should be, 'Who is truth?'

Jesus said simply, 'I am the truth' (cf. John 14:6). Having

settled that, we next learn 'Your word is truth' (John

17:17). The Jewish boy had no need to remain in doubt.

We must take care as to what we believe or disbelieve.

We walk a narrow pathway to heaven.

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A child, on being shown the splendid mausoleum of a

millionaire, exclaimed, 'This is really living!'

Alex, who has been in many prosperous homes, re-

marked 'It isn't good to be a millionaire. It makes you

nervous, and then you don't share with people.'

A husband and wife quarrelled constantly, and finally

decided to get a divorce. On hearing this, their six-year-

old child - who had been a constant witness of their

disputes - said, 'I can't tear myself in two to please you.'

Next morning he told his parents, 'My shoulders and

arms are aching. During the night I felt like Daddy was

pulling me by one arm and Mummy by the other. I feel as

if I've been torn in pieces and I don't know how to put

them back together again.'

God Himself has put into children's hearts the in-

tuition that 'What God has joined together, men should

not separate.'

In Russia, secondary school pupils are taken to the

Museum of Atheism in Moscow.

A guide showed one school group all the exhibits

designed to prove the evils of religion. They were shown

pictures illustrating man's evolution from animals, the

horrors of the Inquisition, and so on.

Then the guide showed them an ancient crucifix. 'You

see, children, in olden times people were backward.

They believed that there was a man called Jesus who was

God's son. It was supposed that He came from heaven to

earth, to save men from their sins. In their stupidity, they

believed that He took everybody's sins upon Himself and

that, animated by love, He was crucified for our mis-

deeds. Our forefathers had no sense! Their religion said

that if anybody believed in Jesus he would be forgiven for

114 From the Lips of Children

all his sins, and would eventually be resurrected from the

dead, just as Jesus Himself was resurrected, and would

enjoy a beautiful life for all eternity!'

A girl of twelve began to weep.

'Comrade teacher,' she said, 'Thank you for telling us

these interesting things. My wrongdoings have been

greatly distressing me. I made my mother cry; I lied to my

father; I cheated at school. I have been wondering how I

can get rid of my sins. And I am terrified of dying. Every

time I see a funeral, I think, "Some day I will be lying in a

coffin, and everything will be over." But I want to live!'

She continued, 'If no modern intelligent person can

believe what you have told us, then I will return to the

foolish ways of our forefathers. It is better to be foolishly

forgiven, and be resurrected, than to be burdened with

them intelligently and miss heaven. I will always be

grateful to you for what you have shown me.'

Once Amélie saw Jesus in a dream. He was saying gently,

'Come to Me/ She went to Him, circling as if in a dance.

Dreams about Jesus are rare. They may well be pre-

monitions.

The Russian Christian, Gennhadi Malachov, had com-

pleted his prison sentence, and his family had arrived at

the jail to take him home.

At the prison gate, his daughter asked, 'Father, where

are you going?'

'I am coming home with you, my child.'

'No/ the girl said unexpectedly, 'you must stay here.'

'Why? Aren't you happy that we will be together

again?'

'No/ replied his daughter, who had been born after his

imprisonment and had never known him at home. 'I

have always been taught that my Daddy's place is in jail,

to suffer for Christ.'

Reactions 115

A Christian child should know that his father is a

cross-bearer, and should be surprised to see him without

a cross. Jesus said, 'Take up your cross, and follow Me/

That is the role of the Christian, the 'Christ-follower'.

The child of Michel Sakharov went with his mother to

visit his father in jail, where he had been imprisoned for

his faith.

The prisoner stretched out his arms to the child and

said, 'Come to me, darling.'

The child clung to his mother, and said, T don't want to

go to him. My father is handsome, I've seen his pictures;

this skinny wrinkled man is not my father.'

Children of Christians tortured and imprisoned by

Communists are not the only ones who fail to recognise

their loved ones. The Jews loved God in glory, but when

the Son of God appeared first as a baby in a manger, and

later as a marred and crucified Saviour, they failed to

recognise Him.

Malachov's child had sharper spiritual perception than

Sakharov's.

During the Christmas season a Sunday school teacher

told her class about Jesus' birth in a stable. The following

week one pupil asked, 'Do those poor people have a

house yet?'

That is a good reaction to the Christmas story; the Holy

Family should have a home. My own home should

certainly be made available. Better still - my heart.

After visiting Israel for a few days at the age of eight,

Amélie observed, This is a land where cats don't scratch,

dogs don't bite, and all men are good.' After a brief and

unpleasant encounter with a cat, she changed her mind.

116 From the Lips of Children

'Some cats scratch - but they must have come from

somewhere else/

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Jesus taught us to look at the lilies as they grow, not

after they are picked; at birds as they are fed by God, not

after they are killed by predators. We are told to worship

God 'in the beauty of holiness', and to think about

'whatsoever things are lovely'.

We ask God to turn away His eyes from our sins. Let us

also learn to turn our eyes away from what is ugly. Let us

open our eyes to the beauties of the holy land, the holy

Church, the holy nation, the holy Bible.

Little Alex injured himself while climbing a fence.

Examining his wounds, which were bleeding, he said,

'Now I know what a crucifixion is like.'

May we also bear every wound as a reminder of Jesus'

sufferings on Golgotha.

Before our trip to Israel, I promised Amélie that I would

take her to all the places that were significant in the life of

Jesus: Bethlehem where He was born, Nazareth where

He grew up, places in Galilee and Judea where He

preached, and then the places where He was judged,

whipped, crucified and entombed; finally, the place of

His ascension.

She thought for a while, and then said, 'Let's do it the

other way round. Show me first the place where, glo-

rified, He ascended to heaven. Then I will not be so sad

when I see the places where He suffered.'

I was reminded of meeting a Russian lieutenant during

World War II. He knew absolutely nothing about Christ.

I told him the story of Jesus' birth, childhood and

baptism, and then described the Sermon on the Mount,

the parables and the miracles. He, who had never heard

anything like it, was jubilant. Dancing round the room,

Reactions 117

he exclaimed, 'What fairy-like beauty! How could I have

lived, without knowing these things?'

Then I told him how Jesus was betrayed, arrested,

bound, sentenced, flogged and crucified. He could not

hold back his tears. When he heard that Jesus' enemies

had asked Him to show them He was the Son of God, by

descending from the cross, he considered that it was a

reasonable demand. He was sure I was going to say that

Jesus agreed to it.

When He heard that in fact, Jesus actually died on the

cross, he collapsed into an armchair and wept bitterly. He

had found a Saviour - but to no avail. Jesus had died.

Only when I was able to tell him the story of the

resurrection did he once again rejoice. I could have

spared him the tears and anguish, if I had told him at the

beginning that the story of Jesus has a happy ending.

Four-year-old Terry listened to a religious broadcast and

heard the preacher say, 'Jesus is mine/

'That's wrong!' he exclaimed. 'He forgot about me..

Jesus is ours, not only his.'

Take all you can from Jesus and his Church, but

remember that nobody has a monopoly. Jesus taught us

to pray 'Our Father', not 'My Father'.

A boy who had heard me speak of 'narcissism' asked

many questions about it.

Narcissism means self-admiration. Narcissus was a

legendary person who spent all his time gazing at his

own reflection, which was to him of surpassing interest.

The boy remarked, 'Then our Sunday school teacher is

a narcissist. He boasts that man is the crown of creation.

But when I went to Marineland I saw whales and dol-

phins doing amazing things. Can men do forty-ton back-

flips? Why does the Bible call Jesus a lion and a lamb?

118 From the Lips of Children

Because the lion is more powerful and the lamb more

gentle than men.'

Little children are free of adult sophistication, and they

don't look down on the animal kingdom. It's true that

God made only man in His image. He gave him a mind

that thinks, feels and reasons. But unlike Narcissus, man

is to reflect God, not himself.

Michel Horev, a Russian Baptist, wrote from jail the story

of his conversion. His father Mihai had died a. martyr's

death, leaving his mother very poor and with four small

children.

Once she was peeling potatoes - their only food - and

asked Michel as a favour to read the Scriptures to her as

she did so.

Michel baulked at that. He found the Bible boring. 'You

read, and I'll peel the potatoes/

That's not such a good idea; I'll have to find my glasses

first, which might take a while. Please be kind and read to

me/

/What part do you want to hear?' he said reluctantly.

The Sermon on the Mount.'

Such a long passage, thought Michel. Three long chapters.

He was a very poor reader, and his eyes were weak. He

got the Bible.

'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' he began, struggling

over the words. 'Blessed are those who mourn.' But

suddenly his eyes were opened to words which were not

on the page. Blessed are my parents. My father suffers in

chains. My mother is sad. Her life is bitter, too.

'Blessed are the meek/ he continued. Jesus must have

meant my parents. They've always been so meek. 'Blessed are

the merciful. . / Mother would share her last piece of bread

with anyone who was hungry or poor. 'Blessed are the pure in

heart. . .' They've never had a spot on their hearts. 'Blessed

are the peacemakers . . / They don't know what hate is. If it

Reactions 119

were left to them, they would even be at peace with the

Communists.

'Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous-

ness'sake . . /For this blessing I am without a father.

His mind flashed back to earlier days. What a strange

man his father had been - as strange as this book!

His mother had told him that when he had been born,

the doctor had said to Michel's parents, 'The boy's eyes

seem weak. He may never see very well. You will have to

accept the fact that he may soon be totally blind.'

On hearing the doctor's sombre prognosis, his father

lifted the infant Michel towards heaven and said, Thank

you, God, for giving me a son after four girls, and thank

you that he has poor sight, perhaps no sight at all . . .'

His mother interrupted - 'Stop this senseless prayer!'

Tears coursed down her cheeks. 'You don't give thanks

for a child's blindness/

'Do you believe, then/ replied her husband, 'that God

makes mistakes? If he is blind he will be useless for

factory work or for any profession. Therefore he will be

dedicated to the Lord's work. The Bible can be read in

Braille/

Remembering this, Michel thought to himself, That must

be how Mary thanked God for giving her a Son whom the

prophets described as a 'man of sorrows', destined to die on a

cross.

'Rejoice, and be exceeding glad . . / He read on and

on, through page after page of the Sermon on the Mount.

By the time he had finished, he had settled in his heart

that he belonged to Jesus.

His father's predictions came true. He really did be-

come a pastor, and as a result he too has been in prison

for many years. He is in prison as I write, and he is almost

blind.

120 From the Lips of Children

In Aurora, Colorado, USA, an eight-year-old boy named

Charlie hanged himself.

He had sometimes been mischievous. Once he deliber-

ately ruined school equipment belonging to other pupils.

As a punishment his mother told him she would with-

hold his pocket money to pay for the damaged articles.

He became resentful. 'When I'm naughty I have to lose

my pocket money, but when my parents have a big

quarrel and they are naughty God does not keep back

their pocket money.' His final argument was suicide at

the age of eight.

Charlie's brother told his grandmother, 'Charlie went

to heaven to visit God, but he'll be back in a couple of

weeks.'

No doubt, when Jesus returns, Charlie will be back,

together with all who have suffered innocently. Will we

be able to look into their reproachful eyes?1

Parents, teachers and judges often have to punish

wrongdoing, and in this they are the representatives of

God, who hates sin. Everyone who punishes must take

good care to be very God-like, lest those who are

punished be driven to despair. Unjust punishment in-

flicted by unrighteous men can produce indelible

trauma, neurosis or psychosis.

Biographers tell us that one beating received by the

young Lenin caused him to tear the cross from his neck

and become a God-hater for life. His father had asked a

priest what he should do with his son, who had failed to

attend church. The priest replied, 'Beat him and beat

him.'The boy overheard.

One slap received by Tito when he was an altar-boy

made him a revolutionist and a mass-murderer. Having

been slack in his duties of serving the priest, he was

punished with a slap he never forgot.

Many people are like Charlie. They say, T get punished

1. Story from Denver Post, 22 April 1985.

Reactions 121

for my mistake, while God is good to those who beat me -

though their sins are greater than mine.'

Children's theology demands that adults behave as

they expect others - especially children - to behave. They

all too easily perceive the fallacy of 'Do as I say, not as I

do.'

Jesus said, 'If you love Me, keep My commandments' -

but He kept them too.

Some boys were misbehaving. Their Sunday School

teacher wished to impress on them the fact that God

would judge them. So he lectured them at length, repeat-

ing over and over again, 'Where is God? I say, where is

God?'

One boy whispered uneasily to another, 'Let's get out

of here - we're getting blamed for so many things, next

he's going to say it's our fault that God's disappeared.'

Of course children should be taught to be aware of

their sinfulness - but there is a need for proportion in all

things! We must not make them feel responsible for all

the tragedies of their homes and the world at large.

They have been born into a world that is full of sins

they did not commit. The entire weight of sin has been

carried by Jesus. It should not burden a child's heart.

In Sunday School the pastor was describing the cruci-

fixion and death of Jesus. A child said afterwards, 'That

story can't be true!'

'Why?' responded the pastor.

'If it were true,' the child replied, 'you would have

tears in your eyes as you told it.'

Such incidents taught me how to preach.

A boy whose mother was dying at Christmas time went

into the church and took the figure of the baby Jesus out

122 From the Lips of Children

of the crib. On the way home, he said to the figure, 'Now

you can see what it's like not having your mother/ When

his mother recovered, he put the child Jesus back.

We can have childlike daring in our relationship with

God. Who could not forgive a child?

Motives

'Oh, but others see my kite!

It gives them joy."

When Mihai was only five, I came home one evening to

find him very distressed. He had been playing with an

electric wire and had received a shock. To teach him a

lesson the baby-sitter had told him, 'Now you will die/

Mihai believed her, and told me the sad story. Trying to

reassure him, I said, 'Don't worry- if you die, you will go

to heaven.'

Tes,' he said, 'but I want to stay here, to do more good

deeds.'

124 From the Lips of Children

St. Paul once wrote that he wanted to depart and be

with Christ 'which is better by far; but it is more necessary

for you that I remain in the body' (Phil. 1:23-24).

Was Mihai speaking out of altruistic motives like Paul,

or did he simply want to get out of an embarrassing

situation? I can't tell.

I was similarly unsure of eleven-year-old Amelie's

motives when she badly wanted to have a horse. I told

her, That could cost a fortune! You could do a good deed

by giving up what you want, and giving the money to the

poor.'

'But that's what I want it for!' she explained. 'So many

people beat horses. This horse might even be bought by a

circus, where it would suffer terribly learning the tricks it

would have to perform. If I had it to look after, the horse

would have a very good life.'

Do we make our decisions out of pure motives? Are the

good intentions we claim genuine?

There is more than a touch of irony in the story of the

atheist's child who said to his parents, 'It's safer not to tell

God that we don't believe in Him. Then He might take us

to heaven anyway.'

When Amélie was tiny, someone told her the story of

Lourdes. To my surprise, she insisted that I take her

there.

'Why?' I asked. 'You aren't ill.'

'But I want to pray at Lourdes, that I won't become ill.'

Must we wait for trouble before appealing to God to

free us from it? Must we for ever fall asleep only to

awaken time and time again in revivals and crusades? Or

would it be wiser to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation'?

The chief concern of pastors for their flock should not

be the recovery of sinners, but teaching their congre-

Motives 125

gâtions how to vanquish sin when it first intrudes, and

how not to entertain lustful or impure thoughts.

My wife and I once stayed with an Indian family whose

five-year-old boy had just been given, for the first time in

his life, a really beautiful pair of shoes. I was barefoot,

because my legs were hurting.

During the meal he must have overheard the words of

John the Baptist: 'He who has two tunics, let him give to

him who has none.' He took off one shoe and handed it to

me.

When, not realising what was happening, I made no

effort to take it, he asked whether he had done something

wrong; perhaps I was not a believer?

He certainly proved that he was a believer.

When he was nearly four, Alex heard his sister say, 'I'm

going to be a doctor when I grow up.'

Feeling that he needed to say something about his own

plans, he chimed in, 'When I'm big, I want to be a man

who will make his mother happy.'

What a beautiful ambition! We would do well to copy

it. We can make our heavenly Father rejoice over us with

singing (Zeph. 3:17). We can make heavenly Jerusalem-

which is our mother - rejoice. Even a prodigal son can

make his father happy by returning home.

A Scottish pastor was given notice of dismissal. During

his years of service, it seemed that nobody had been

converted.

Moreover, he had allowed a foolish thing to happen

that had scandalised the congregation. When the offer-

ing plate had been passed around, a nine-year-old boy

had asked the sidesman to put the plate on the floor.

Wondering what would happen, the sidesman had done

126 Front the Lips of Children

so. The boy had stood on the plate. The congregation had

not understood that he had given himself as an offering.

That boy was Robert Moffat, who later became a well-

known missionary in Africa. His son-in-law was David

Livingstone.

We can learn from this child the best kind of giving.

A missionary in Uganda in the nineteenth century told

this story.

His church had a gift day, but instead of sending their

gifts ahead of time for decorating the church, they

brought them with them on Sunday morning. When the

service was over and the missionary stood looking at the

pile of gifts, he thought he heard something. Raising his

head, he saw a little African girl in the aisle.

'Do you want to speak to me?' he asked.

Very timidly the girl came to the front of the church,

and said, 'Please sir, I want to give something.' Putting

her hand into her scanty garment she pulled out a bag.

Opening it, she brought out handful after handful of

silver and gold until there was a pile on the table worth

more than all the other gifts put together.

The missionary said, 'You ought not to have done this.

Tell me where you took the money from, and we will put

it back.'

The child burst into tears. 'It's all mine!'

'It can't be!' exclaimed the missionary. 'You are much

too poor.'

Then the story came out. The child had sold herself as a

slave in order to be able to give money to the church.

To become self-sacrificing like God is an excellent way

to find Him.

The archives of the China Inland Mission contain a letter

sent over a hundred years ago to its founder, Hudson

Taylor.

Motives 127

If you are not dead yet, I want to send you some money

I have saved up to help the little boys and girls of China

to love Jesus.

The Christian Mission to the Communist World received

a similar letter from a boy of nine:

Mr. Wurmbrand, my mother read to me from your

book, Tortured for Christ. I had tears in my eyes when I

heard about the sufferings of Christians under the

Communists.

I hope you are grand enough to accept criticism

without getting offended. My Mom told me this is a

sign of grandeur in a man.

We live in Rhodesia. You lead missions in many

countries. Why not in ours? It was wrong of you not to

think about it. Many Rhodesians would help. I'll

volunteer to become your general director. It must be

nice to be at the same time a general and a director and

also to serve the Church. Do your generals wear uni-

forms like those of The Salvation Army? Please reply.

Don't despise the little ones. Our angels daily see the

face of God.

I replied with a four-page letter telling him what his

duties as general director would be.

As a result, not he but his mother became our general

director, and the nine-year-old 'missionary' became her

assistant.

The story is often told of the six-year-old boy who was

carrying another aged four. An adult asked him, 'Isn't he

too heavy for you to carry?'

The reply was, 'He ain't heavy. He's my brother.'

128 From the Lips of Children

Amélie remained in the house as we accompanied de-

parting guests to the car. Within minutes she joined us,

saying, 'I was afraid that if I remained alone I might do

something stupid.'

People are especially prone to doing stupid things

when they are on their own and unobserved. But why

should they be alone? There are no loners in God's

service. Christians should remain in constant fellowship

with their brethren.

Amelie's comment reminded me of a quiet madman

who was a member of my congregation in Bucharest,

Rumania, years ago. Once, when we invited him to

lunch, my wife set before him the usual knife, fork and

spoon.

He said, 'Please, take the knife away. I know I am mad,

so I have said to God, "Since I'm foolish I don't know

what I might do if I had access to a knife/' So I promised I

would never hold one in my hand/

If only all adults and mentally healthy people had such

wisdom!

Many devices for rescuing individuals from alcoholism or

other bad habits are often unsuccessful. I read of one

method that was very successful.

A five-year-old boy said, 'Mummy, do you know what

I want for Christmas more than anything else?'

Little con-man! thought his mother. I wonder what he's

after?

The answer bowled her over. He said, 'All I want is a

Mummy who doesn't smoke any more. I love you very

much, and want you to live for a long time.' Then he put

his chubby arms around her neck and kissed her.

She had to brush away a tear. She never smoked again.

A mother gave her son an apple. 'Share it with your

brother in a Christ-like way.'

Motives 129

'What do you mean?'

'Give your brother the bigger half !'

Handing the apple back to her, he said, 'Why not give

it to my brother and let him have the chance to share it

with me in a Christ-like way!'

We smile. But it ill becomes us to pass to others the

duty of being like Him.

Children can be disarmingly honest when their motives

are not entirely pure.

A grammar class was asked to write a sentence contain-

ing an object. One child wrote, 'Dear lady, you are really

very beautiful.'

'Thank you very much/ responded the teacher, 'but

what is the object in this sentence?'

'To get a good mark,' the pupil replied candidly.

When my grandson Alex was four, I asked him for a kiss.

He said, 'I can't give it yet.' After an hour, he came to me

and announced: 'Now you can have the kiss.'

I asked, 'But why not earlier?'

'Because my kiss wasn't yet stuffed with enough

love.'

Are our kisses always stuffed with enough love? There

is nothing more saddening than a loveless kiss.

When Luke, who was nine, heard people cursing the

gypsies for stealing and fortune-telling, he wanted to be

taken to them so that he could share his sweets with

them. He told his mother of his intention: 'When I grow

up, I am going to wash the feet of gypsies, just as Jesus

did. Isn't that better than complaining that people have

dirty feet? Will you let me do it?'

That child died young, having lost his sight. On his

130 Front the Lips of Children

deathbed, he said: 'I would like to take all the gypsies

with me to heaven/

'If someone wanted to kill me/ observed Amélie, 'I

would say to him, "First let me tell you the story of

Jesus." If he killed me afterwards, at least I'd go to

heaven.'

Her thinking was wiser than her years. Christians in

Communist or Islamic countries who are brought before

torturers or executioners make it their first priority to tell

them about salvation through Christ. Before answering

any questions from their interrogators about the under-

ground Church, they share their faith. Then what comes,

may come.

Isaac Feinstein was a Hebrew-Christian missionary in

Rumania who was killed in the Holocaust. He left six

children behind him, one of whom died at the age of

nine. On her deathbed she comforted her mother: 'You

have five other children. Papa is in the next world,

without any of his children. If s only right that I should go

to him.'

That is how easily a child who believes is able to face

death.

A blind child was flying a kite. She was asked, 'Why are

you doing that? You can't see anything.'

'Oh, but others see my kite! It gives them joy. And I

have the feeling that it draws me upwards.'

A child asked, 'If I pray, will I get everything that I ask

for?'

'Yes, but only if it is good for you/

'Well, "all things work together for good" anyway, so I

Motives 131

don't have to pray for good things! Can I pray for what is

bad, and get it?'

The answer is yes, it is possible. Balaam, a false

prophet, was granted the fulfilment of a bad desire, but

this resulted in his own destruction.

A girl named Catherine read the whole Bible, Old and

New Testaments, eight times before she reached the age

of twelve. Are you wondering what became of a girl like

that?

She became the wife of William Booth and the co-

founder of The Salvation Army.

Such a little child can lead us, by her example, into the

Word, so that we too may maximise our usefulness in the

kingdom of God.

Count Zinzendorf, at the age of four, was taken to

an art gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany. He stood

before a picture of the crucified Christ. It bore the in-

scription, "This I have done for you; what are you doing

for Me?'

Then and there, the little boy decided to dedicate his

life to the Saviour.

He could never forget that question. While still a child

he told himself, A faith that does nothing is just babbling.

When he was grown up, he formed the community of

the Moravians, which has as its motto, The Saviour

deserves everything'. Missionaries from the community

went to Greenland, to India, to Africa.

Acknowledging the decisive influence of a picture on

the life of this Christian, can we discredit the use of holy

representations in worship? We use pictorial Bibles and

Bible story books for the instruction of children. Perhaps

art might serve to arouse the child in every adult.

Children's theology does not object to religious art.

132 From the Lips of Children

A partially paralysed girl, who was distressing to look at,

was avoided by adults and children alike. No one wanted

to be subjected to her endless complaints.

Finally she realised what the problem was. She de-

cided not to complain any more. She would tell jokes -

jokes even about her own disabilities - and she would

amuse and cheer up those who were in her company.

Soon people were delighted to be in her presence.

Eventually she became a professional comedienne.

In November 1984, Galina Viltchinskaia was freed after

five years in jail, which had been interrupted only by

three months of freedom. From jail she went directly to a

service of the underground Church in Habarovsk. It was

the normal thing for her to do; after all, she had been

imprisoned for her faith.

When she was released she was twenty-seven years

old. The church in Russia which told her story to the

outside world said that she was extremely thin, and had

shrunk so that she looked like a child of eleven. Her face

was yellow; she had little hair left. It was an effort to try to

smile.

Because of continuous starvation in prison, her body

was unable to manufacture fat. It was reported that it

might be months before she could eat normally - assum-

ing that she remained free, which was considered very

unlikely.

When a friend met her who had known her in the old

days, she exclaimed, 'What have they done to you? You

look like a child!'

Galina replied meekly, 'I should have made myself

look like a child of God, but I suppose I did not, so they

did it their own way. '

The Russian Baptist leader Mihail Khorev tells of one of

his childhood experiences.

Motives 133

During the siege of Leningrad in 1941, he was living

with his mother and three other small children (his father

had died in jail for his faith in Jesus). The family was

doomed to starvation.

His mother used to pray, 'Thank you, God, that you

love us so much/ Little Mihail always wondered about

that. If God loves us so much, why can't we have a piece of

bread? t

One day she brought home a piece of cheese, divided it

into four, and left the room. Mihail wondered why there

were not five pieces. Unsure what to do, he held his piece

in his hand.

After a few minutes, his mother came back into the

room and asked, 'Does anybody have a piece of cheese

left?' Mihail nodded. His mother continued, 'Old Kolia,

our neighbour, is dying of hunger. I asked him what was

his last wish, and he said, "Something to eat". The last

wish of a dying person ought to be granted. Would you

give up your piece of cheese?'

Mihail went with his mother to see how Kolia would

eat the cheese. When his mother placed it in the dying

man's mouth, he smiled and breathed his last. He had

not been able even to swallow the morsel.

Mihail was tempted to remove the cheese from the

dead man's mouth and eat it himself. When would he

ever see cheese again? His mother saw what was going

on in his mind.

At last he said, 'I gave the cheese not to Kolia, but to

God. I won't take back a sacrifice given to Him.'

His mother was happy. Later Khorev wrote, from

the same jail in which his father had died, T can testify

that the greatest happiness for a man is to be totally

consecrated to God.'

Have we made vows to God which we have later

regretted? Then let us remember the saints and the

martyrs - not only those of old, but also those of today.

134 From the Lips of Children

A poorly-clothed barefoot Egyptian child who was about

ten years old pointed to the Nile. He told me, 'As a

baby, Moses floated on that river in a basket. Princess

Hatsheput saved the little boy, who then went on to save

his people and to save mankind from much ignorance. I

have nothing either - but nobody has saved me.'

Incredible things can result from the saving of a single

child.

I told this story to an adult afterwards, who retorted,

'Nonsense! How do you know that the child you save

won't turn out to be another Hitler?'

How cynical we become as we grow up! Children

are much less inclined to indulge in such negative

speculations.

A Moslem boy of thirteen heard a Christian extolling the

sublime teaching of Jesus, that we must love our enemies

and turn the other cheek when we are beaten.

He said to himself, 17/ test this teaching. He slapped the

Christian.

True to his convictions, the Christian wept silently,

saying, 'I am weeping for you.'

Surprised, the Moslem boy asked to be shown what

part of Scripture contained this strange command. He

was shown the text in Matthew chapter 5, and after

reading the chapter through he decided to live according

to its precepts. But he could not break the habit of

swearing, nor could he see any lîlessedness' in mourn-

ing and in being poor.

He consulted a wise Christian, who explained, 'The

teachings of the Sermon on the Mount are not command-

ments given to men; no man could fulfil them. There has

only ever been one life motivated by such love, and that

was the life of Jesus Himself. Ask rim to come into your

heart, and He will change you.'

The boy did so, and became a new person.

Motives 135

A five-year-old, who had been ill since birth and had an

incurable handicap, awoke from what the doctors had

believed to be a coma.

He said to his parents, 'I saw Jesus. He sent me back.

He did not tell me why/

Many of us have escaped near-brushes with death. Let

us believe that it was Jesus who sent us back. We might

not know for what specific purpose, but it was surely so

that we might serve Him whole-heartedly.

Mihai was eight years old when he came home from his

Catholic school and announced that he was not going to

pray any more.

I said, 'All right, you have the freedom to decide what

you want to do. But can I ask you how you came to make

such a decision?'

He complained that he had had two discouraging

religious experiences that day.

In class, he had discovered that he had forgotten the

exercise book that contained his homework. So he had

prayed to God, who can do anything, to make the

exercise book fly the short distance from home to school.

Had I not told him that God took a whole man, Ezekiel,

and transported him from Babylon to Tel-Aviv? So it

would be no problem for God to fetch his exercise book.

The prayer had been in vain. The book did not arrive,

and his teacher had scolded him.

Later, in the religious knowledge class, his teacher - a

monk - told the pupils about a mason who swore at the

virgin Mary while working on a high scaffold. As punish-

ment, the blessed virgin allowed him to fall from the

scaffold that very day and break his legs.

Unable to bear this, Mihai had stood up and said,

Teacher, that can't be right. If someone wrongs my

father, he forgives him. Surely the virgin Mary is even

better than my father? If somebody speaks badly of her,

136 From the Lips of Children

surely she forgives. The man must have fallen because he

was careless/

In answer to this argument the teacher had given Mihai

a slap.

We decided that the best course was to leave Mihai

alone. We did not force him to pray.

At the same time I told his story to a lady who knew the

Catholic archbishop, who made the monk apologise to

Mihai. After that they became friends, and once more

Mihai joined with us in prayer.

Later still, I shared a cell with that same monk in

prison.

Political circumstances forced the father of Laura del

Carmen Vicuna to flee from Santiago, the capital of Chile.

She was still a baby when he fled. Soon afterwards he

died, leaving the poor mother to work as a seamstress to

support her two little children.

The mother, who was very beautiful, soon became the

prey of a rich but brutal landlord, Manuel Mora. He grew

tired of the woman he had lived with for a while, branded

her like an animal with a red-hot iron, and chased her

away.

The knowledge that her mother was living in sin with

Mora caused the young Laura much suffering.

At the age of ten she took her first communion. On that

day, in 1901, she wrote down the following resolutions:

1. My God, I wish to love and serve You all my life

long. Therefore I give You my soul, my heart, myself.

2. I would rather die than insult You by sinning.

Therefore I wish to shun everything that could

separate me from You.

3. I take it as my aim to do everything I can to ensure

that You may be known and loved, and to repair the

insults that You receive daily from men, especially

from my relatives.

Motives 137

When she was twelve, Laura unwittingly aroused the

lust of the same Mora and had to flee. To avenge this

insult, Mora bound her mother to a pole and flogged her

almost to a pulp. Laura, inspired by Jesus' words about

the good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep,

decided to offer her life to God on behalf of her poor

mother.

Soon she fell fatally ill. But despite her sickness, Mora

attempted to seduce her. Only the intervention of neigh-

bours saved her.

Towards the end of her short life, she said to her

mother, T am dying. I have asked Jesus for this. For two

years I have offered my life to Him so that He might give

you the grace of repentance. Mother, before I die, will I

have the joy of knowing that you will return to God?'

Her mother promised, and Laura died breathing the

words 'Thank you, Jesus. I die satisfied.'

She was thirteen.

Her mother kept her promise and became a believer.

She refused Mora's demands, even when he threatened

her with a revolver.

Jesus wants more children like this, to offer their lives

for the salvation of sinners.

A child was anxious to wear spectacles, because he

thought they would give him the same prestige as his

father, who was a bespectacled executive.

He was taken to an optician, who showed him a chart

and asked what letters he could distinguish.

T can see the first letters very well - H, I, C. But I can't

see the next ones - S, A, B - at all.'

Our amusement at this story belies our own inclina-

tions! When we read the Bible, we readily accept what fits

in with our own ambitions and preconceptions. But we

fail to see what does not agree with our own theories or

pet sins, because we want to see the world through

spectacles of our own choosing.

Solutions

God doesn't wear shoes.'

I have shouted many Hallelujahs in my time - but I never

thought to hurl them at the enemy's head!

My grandson at the age of five was determined to

become a soldier, though he was not sure whether in the

American, Israeli, or Salvation army. He looked forward

to the time when he would be able to shoot, but thought-

fully anticipated my reaction. 'Don't worry, Grandpa. I

won't shoot with bullets - but with Hallelujahs.'

This struck me as being thoroughly biblical. Are

praises to the Lord ('Hallelujahs') really as ineffective as

we might imagine? In Joshua's time, when it was time for

the Jews to capture Jericho, they were commanded not to

shoot but to blow their trumpets and shout. A great

victory was gained.

Consider too the great victory of Jehosophat over the

Ammonites and Moabites - sworn enemies of the Lord -

Solutions 139

when he sent an army of singers against them, praising

the Lord. 'You will not need to fight this battle/ the Lord

promised, and the enemy was utterly destroyed and left

much booty.

We would do well to shoot with Hallelujahs!

I have always enjoyed telling Bible stories to my grand-

children. I remember telling Alex how Nebuchadnezzar

king of Babylon had set before his citizens the alternative

of bowing before a statue portraying him as a god, or

being thrown into a burning fiery furnace.

I asked Alex what he would have done. 'Would you

have bowed to another god than our heavenly Father?'

'No way!'

'So you would have let yourself be thrown alive into

the fire?'

'No way!'

'What other choice would you have had?'

'I would have thrown Nebuchadnezzar into the fire!'

Five-year-old Alex listened carefully to Jesus' story of

the man who owned a hundred sheep, lost one, and

searched until he found it. Joyful at reclaiming his loss,

he gathered his friends for a feast. The conclusion of the

story is that in heaven 'there will be more joy over one

repenting sinner than over ninety-nine people who need

no repentance'.

'What did you learn from the story?' Alex's father

asked him.

'The man should have watched over his sheep more

carefully; then he would not have lost one/

Clergy expend a great deal of energy on revivals and on

seeking to rehabilitate Christians who have gone astray.

Would it not be better to warn Christians about the

pitfalls and bypaths that might lead them astray in the

first place?

140 Front the Lips of Children

When he was four Mihai said to me, 'Father, what can I

do? I'm bored/

I suggested that he should think about God.

'What can I think about Him with my little mind? He

can think about me with His big mind.'

Instead of theological speculations, which are often

fruitless because of the limitations of our minds, we

would do better to assure ourselves, through Christ, of

God's friendship. Then He will be free to take care of us

without hindrance.

A child tried to draw a picture of God, and was rebuked.

'Give up this silly attempt. Nobody knows what God is

like/

He answered simply. 'They will when I have finished.'

Whenever I came home after work, Mihai would ask,

'Father, did you brin&me anything? Good evening/

One morning I read to him the story of how Jesus

chased the merchants from the temple, and I took the

opportunity to draw a lesson from what we had read.

'You are a temple - but you also have merchants that

must be chased out. '

'What merchants?' he asked.

'One merchant is in the habit of asking first what gift I

have brought, and then offering me a greeting.' He

acknowledged that this was true.

'You have a second merchant/1 added. 'You love Jesus

because He promises you Paradise. Would you love Him

if He had no Paradise to give? To love Him just for what

you can get out of Him is mercenary.'

Mihai replied, 'You have to pretend that you don't

know He can give you Paradise, and say to Him simply,

"I love you." But deep down, we know what He can

give/

Solutions 141

A father agreed to be a one-man audience for a drawing-

room Nativity play produced by his four children.

One played Mary, another Joseph, and the third an

angel bringing the good tidings. The fourth child

presented herself: 'I am the three Magi who have come

from the East/

When it was pointed out that she could not possibly be

three wise men, she replied, 'Why not?'

And why not, indeed? Nobody is a single self, but

rather a cluster of selves. We have the outward man, the

inner man, the hidden man of the heart, the Id, the Ego,

the Super-Ego. Often we 'talk to ourselves', or conduct

mental arguments with ourselves.

It was the best in Peter that acknowledged Christ as

'the Christ, the Son of the living God^7. It was the worst in

him that denied his Master, saying, 'I do not know the

man/

To a greater or lesser degree, we are all 'split person-

alities'. Very young children are probably the most

integrated among us.

One child can play all three Magi. Were an adult to

attempt the role, the three would probably quarrel within

him.

A mother was putting her child to bed. 'Don't forget to

pray for Grandma, that she might grow very old with us.'

'Why?' asked the child. 'Wouldn't it be better to pray

that God will make her young again?'

The fact is, that those we pray for will one day be young

again.

Andrew Carnegie, who was known as the King of Steel,

became rich as the owner of the greatest steel mills in the

world.

When he was a ten-year-old boy in Scotland, he had a

rabbit-hutch but no food for his little animal friends. So

142 From the Lips of Children

he told the neighbourhood boys that if they would gather

clover and dandelions for the rabbits, he would name the

animals after them. The deal was accepted.

Carnegie learned early in life how fond men are of their

own names, and he applied that knowledge throughout

his life.

Years later he named his steel mill in Pittsburgh after

Edgar Thomson, director of the Italian railway company

to which he wanted to sell steel rails. He had learned his

lesson well!

Perhaps he had been inspired by reading what the

Bible says in this regard. God promised Abraham, T will

make your name greaf (Gen. 12:2). Jesus promised the

overcomer, T . . . will acknowledge his name before my

Father and his angels' (Rev. 3:5).

Don Pedro, king of Brazil, intended to build the first

hospital in his country, but had no money. So he issued a

decree promising to everyone who gave the sum of

$10,000 the title of Baron; to those who gave $20,000 the

title of Viscount; and to those who gave the sum of

$40,000, the title of Duke.

Money began to pour in, and the hospital was built.

When inauguration day came, the veil covering the

plaque was drawn aside to reveal this inscription:

This hospital has been donated by human pride to

human misery/

At some time or other, everyone suffers from frus-

tration or a lack of self-confidence. Consequently most

people - including ourselves - are not as we would like

them to be, and so we must meet them on their own

ground as we attempt to win them for the kingdom.

Little Andrew Carnegie made use of a form of recogni-

tion-award to accomplish what he wanted. Let us apply

his tactics, by making sure that in our churches every

individual counts and is highly regarded.

Solutions 143

The Sunday school teacher rambled on and on about the

great characters of the Bible, starting with Adam and Eve;

after an hour he had only progressed as far as Jeremiah.

'Now comes Ezekiel/ he announced. 'Where should I

place this great prophet?'

A girl answered promptly, 'He can have my place - I'm

leaving!'

Worse things can befall a preacher who has not learned

the skill of communicating the gospel in terse words!

Nauka i Religia, the chief atheist magazine of the USSR,

tells of the life of some Christian families who fled to the

tundra (treeless arctic plains) and the taiga (swampy

forests) of Siberia, in order not to associate with the

God-hating Communists. They were discovered by

anthropologists, after living a solitary life for forty years.

The scientists recorded the following story about two

children in the community.

When a dog died, one child said, 'Let's bury it and put

a cross on its grave/

The other said, 'It wouldn't be lawful; the dog wasn't

baptised.'

Then lef s put a garland on the grave. The dog will see

it from heaven and rejoice.'

The atheist Einstein was brought to believe in God by a

very small child; none other than Yehudi Menuhin, who

astounded the world at the age of six with his violin-

playing.

Einstein was visiting Menuhin's father, a practising

Jew. They discussed ideas about God, and Einstein ex-

plained why he did not believe in the existence of God.

Yehudi, the wonder child, overheard the dis-

cussion while playing with his toys, and interrupted.

'Mr. Professor, I will prove to you that God exists.'

Amused, Einstein asked, 'What is your proof?'

144 From the Lips of Children

Yehudi took his little violin and began to play. Einstein

listened in ecstasy. When the child finished, he asked

Einstein, 'If there were no God, how could a child of six

play music that delights thousands in concert halls?'

Einstein never again claimed disbelief in God.

A little girl was talking to her mother, who was busy in

the kitchen. She was telling her the events of the day.

When she had finished, her mother said, 'Now go and

polish Daddy's shoes.'

The girl did not enjoy the task, but she obeyed. Soon

her father came in, but before he had a chance to thank

her, she asked, 'Who polishes God's shoes?'

Her father was no theologian. Even if he had been,

would his theological qualifications have been any help?

Somewhat embarrassed, he said, 'I suppose some

good angel considers it an honour to do so.'

She was not satisfied. 'I was wrong- God doesn't wear

shoes. He told Moses, "Take your shoes off, because you

are on holy ground." God is always on holy ground in

heaven. So He can't wear shoes, and there's no need to

worry about it.'

At family prayers that evening, her father read how

Jesus washed His disciples' feet.

She remarked, 7esus too had walked barefoot, or with

just sandals, on the dusty roads of Palestine. It would

have been nice if one of the disciples, after having his feet

washed by Jesus, had offered to wash His feet. How

come it didn't occur to any of them?'

Again, the father had no answer. He had never real-

ised that we must not only accept Jesus' services, but also

ask ourselves what little things we can do to help Him.

His daughter was wise beyond her years. It is import-

ant for us to consider the theology of children.

Solutions 145

Today's headlines contain many unnerving and tragic

events, among them the abduction, kidnapping, rape

and murder of little children. Like many concerned

parents, my son instructed both his children never to get

into a stranger's car and to refuse any toys, sweets or

money from strangers, however pleasant they may

seem.

Once he decided to test Amélie. 'Would you go into

someone's car if he offered you 500 dollars?'

'No way!'

'What if he offered you 5,000 dollars?'

'No way!'

'But what if he offered 50,000?'

'Well. . . 50,000 dollars is a lot of money. I'd tell him,

"Give me the money and I'll ask my Daddy what I should

do."'

Everyone has a breaking point. Anyone can resist a

small temptation. But if it is really enticing or overwhelm-

ing - don't be in a hurry to give in. Rather, ask the One

who has told you not to yield, the One on whose good

intentions you can always rely.

A little girl in a wretched attic, whose sick mother had

nothing to eat, knelt down by her bedside and said

slowly, 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Then she went

into the street, wondering where God kept His bread.

Turning a corner, she spotted a large, prosperous bakery

and thought, This must be the place!' So she went in

confidently and said to the baker, 'I've come for it/

'Come for what?'

'My daily bread/ she said, pointing to the tempting

loaves. 'I'll take two, if you please - one for my mother

and one for me/

The baker wrapped them and gave them to his little

customer, who started at once for the door.

'Stop, you little rascal!' said the baker roughly.

'Where's your money?'

146 Front the Lips of Children

'I haven't got any,' she replied simply.

'Haven't any? You little thief! What brought you here,

then?'

The harsh words frightened the little girl and she burst

into tears. 'Mother is sick, and I'm so hungry. In my

prayers I said, "Give us this day our daily bread," and

then I thought God meant me to fetch it, so I came.'

The rough but kindly baker was softened by the child's

simple story, and instead of punishing her he said, 'You

poor girl! Here, take this to your mother.' And he filled a

large basket with bread and gave it to her.

The famous missionary to Africa, George Moffat, went to

a new tribe and found to his amazement an inscription on

a tree: "The Christian school gathers here.' He did not

know of any Christian missionaries who had been there

before him.

Soon he found a twelve-year-old girl and asked her

about the school. Well, she said, she was the head-

mistress and the only teacher. She had lived in a neigh-

bouring area for a time, where she heard the gospel; and

she had returned to be the first missionary to the tribe.

It is not impossible to recruit children for home and

foreign missions. In fact, children have special access to

people's hearts.

A four-year-old boy from Sri Lanka, born with terrible

deformities, listened intently as his father read in the

Scriptures of how the disciples questioned Jesus about a

man handicapped from birth: 'Who sinned, this man or

his parents, that he was born blind?' (John 9:2).

The little boy broke in to ask, 'Mummy and Daddy, did

you sin, and was I born blind because of that?'

The parents replied, 'We were God-fearing from child-

hood. We are not conscious of any sin that would have

deserved such punishment.'

Solutions 147

The child then said, 'If that is so, I can be quiet. God

will show in me some work of His.'

Now some thirty years later he is still alive, living

mostly in hospitals in great suffering. Through his quiet

witness, God shows that a cross can be borne patiently,

lovingly, and with the hope of a better life in Paradise.

A boy of twelve threw a stone that accidentally hit one of

the family geese on the head, killing it. Scared of the

consequences of his carelessness, he buried the dead

fowl, thinking that his mother would not miss it since

they had a number of geese.

That evening his sister blackmailed him. Tonight you

can wash the dishes. Otherwise I'll tell Mother what you

did.'

So he washed the dishes. But when she tried to black-

mail him again the next day, he replied 'No, today you

wash the dishes. I told Mum all about it - and she forgave

me.'

If you have committed a sin, however large, will you

allow men and devils to inveigle you into more and more

sins to cover up for the first? Better be quick to confess

your sin to God. You will not surprise Him, for you are

certainly not the first sinner. In fact, He would be

surprised if you did not sin.

Know also, He forgives gladly. Where appropriate,

confess your sin to the one you have wronged. And be

aware how important it is that you do not let anyone force

you into a wrong direction for ever, simply because you

have taken a single step in that direction.

Admonitions

"Have one, child.

Origen, one of the most celebrated teachers of the ancient

Church, passed through the gamut of suffering, though

he did not attain to the privilege of dying a martyr's

death.

He was only a child when his father Leonid (who later

died for his faith) was arrested. When he heard that his

father had been imprisoned, he did all he could to get

himself jailed. His mother tried in vain to dissuade him.

Finally she hid his clothes in desperation, and so forced

him to stay at home.

Unable to do anything else, he wrote to his father:

'Beware of altering for our sake your decision, that you

will suffer for Christ.'

Some Christians, thinking of the suffering that their

loyalty to Christ brings their families, crack under press-

ures and persecution. Some are concerned lest their

Admonitions 149

dangerous stand for Christ might make members of their

family forsake the faith, because of the heavy burden that

their father's sacrifice imposes on them.

I have heard many martyrs' children exclaim, 'If only

my father had kept silent, my childhood would not have

been so bitter.'

It is a great encouragement to have children like

Origen. When I was in jail, my son who was then very

young sent me letters in the same spirit in which Origen

wrote. His first words to me, when he was allowed to see

me after four years of detention, were: 'I have a rich

Father who is taking care of me. You need not worry.'

The guards who were listening knew that he was my

son. They wondered who this rich father might be.

May we encourage all who walk the way of the cross,

assuring them that we do not resent the suffering that we

may endure on their account. They should know that we

are proud of them.

Strolling through a park with six-year-old Mihai and his

friend, I sometimes found myself left behind as the boys

skipped ahead. All of a sudden Mihai spotted a man

reading a book. He went up to him and said, 'You'd be

better reading the Bible!'

'Why?'

'It tells you how to go to heaven. If you don't, you will

burn in hell. See that tall man over there? He's my father.

He'll explain things better.' With such an introduction, I

was able to take the opportunity to explain further. The

man was won for God, and is today one of Rumania's

greatest Christian poets.

Let us be evangelists, preparing the way like John the

Baptist.

At five, Mihai attended a prayer meeting where there

were prayers for the poor. 'Father,' he enquired, 'why do

150 From the Lips of Children

you bother God with prayers for the poor? Put your hand

in your pocket and give!'

Many say that they do not know how to pray. A child

provided the answer: a good deed is a wonderful prayer.

Once I explained to a child how tiny we are in this

immense universe. Man ought to be humble. He is no

more than a pebble.

The child (who was eight) replied, 'A pebble is a big

thing. If it gets into the shell of an oyster, it becomes a

pearl! If s wrong to despise oneself/

When my granddaughter was seven, she watched me

drawing men's faces. My drawing is worse than poor.

She said earnestly, 'Grandpa, you are sinning. God made

men to be beautiful. In your drawing you are making

them ugly!'

I would have liked Picasso to have heard those words.

He painted men ugly. But then I realised how often I have

labelled people bad whom God loves and who are

appreciated in His sight. A pebble can become precious,

and a sinner can be of great value.

A five-year-old child was watching his mother as she

made some cakes. Eventually he had a bright idea.

'Mummy,' he said, 'you have taught me so many nice

words. May I teach you some as well?'

'Yes, of course. What would you like to teach me to

say?'

'Try "Have one, my dear child!" '

The mother accepted the instruction immediately.

A group of us were discussing some serious mission

problems. Amélie, who was about six years old at the

time, was playing with her toys. Presently she inter-

Admonitions 151

rupted. 'Grandpa, whereabouts is the word "problem"

found in the Bible?'

'Nowhere that I know of/

'But you all believe in the Bible - why are you so

worried about something that's so unimportant, it isn't

even mentioned in the Bible?'

I learned from this childish comment that looking for

solutions to problems can be a useless exercise. It is

simpler to reject problems, as things that do not belong to

our lives.

In a life which has seen a great deal of suffering, I have

learned that it is a sin to be plagued with headaches!

In the Bible, Jesus is called the head of the Church, and

the believers are the body. Now, neither the foot nor the

elbow can have headaches - only the head. So a believer

with a headache has usurped the role of Jesus! It is as if he

said, 'Come down from the throne! I am the head now.

To prove it, I have headaches.'

In what sense do we have headaches like this?

At night Luther used to pray, 'God, is it my world - or

Your world? Is it my Church - or Your Church? If it is

Your Church and Your world, please take care of them. I

am tired, I have to go to bed. Goodnight, my God. We

will see each other in the morning/

Let us leave everything in God's hands.

A boy of six overheard his older sister exclaim several

times, 'Oh God!' Finally he said to her, 'You're doing

wrong. Don't bother God.'

There is an old teaching in the Bible that is almost

completely neglected. Jairus was rebuked: 'Why bother

the teacher?' (Mark 5:35). The Psalmist says, 'My soul

waiteth upon God' (Psa. 62:1, av).

It is said that Teresa of Lisieux once chided a nun for

constantly complaining about her troubles. 'Don't bother

your sisters. They each have their own burdens/

The nun accepted the rebuke in a good spirit. 'You are

152 From the Lips of Children

right. From now on, I will only tell my troubles to Jesus.'

'Oh, no/ Teresa said, 'to Him least of all! Has He not

suffered enough? Let Him have peace/

A couple had always put their toddler in the church

crèche, which is often very noisy. The day came when

they decided to take him into the adult service for the first

time. Before they did so, they told him, 'No talking in

church'.

Everything went well while the choir was singing. But

when the pastor began to preach, the boy shouted, 'No

talking in church!'

Most older children would probably agree that there is

too much talking in church! If the words they heard there

were warm with love and truth - the 'real thing' (which is

the meaning of the Hebrew word for 'word') - children

would not mind long services. In the underground

Church and in India, I have seen children quiet and

interested in services lasting two to three hours.

When the Union forces finally gained victory in

America's tragic Civil War, a jubilant crowd cheered

Abraham Lincoln. He asked the people what should be

done with the leaders of the rebellious South. They

roared, 'Hang them!'

Lincoln's son, Tad, said, 'Father, don't hang them, but

hang on to them/

'You are right/ said his father, and acted accordingly;

and so, in the opinion of some, made his assassination

inevitable.

Whether the child reflected the man or the man the

child, the Union was saved, and today America is one

nation under God.

Admonitions 153

An American pastor was once asked to preach in Japan.

When he came home, his young son asked him, 'How

could people understand you? You don't speak

Japanese.'

His father explained. 'I spoke a couple of sentences in

English, then someone translated my words into

Japanese.'

The child considered the explanation, and then said

brightly, 'Father, why don't you stop in your sermons

occasionally, and have somebody explain what they

mean?'

In Aria, which is 50 kilometres west of Addis Ababa in

Ethiopia, the first German missionaries bred cattle. They

had a twelve-year-old boy looking after their herd.

One evening they observed him reading to his friends

from the New Testament which they had translated.

With great difficulty he stumbled through the words,

trying to make some sense out of them. Finally, he closed

the book and prayed: 'God in heaven, these white men

have come to speak to us about Jesus, but they have

heads like wood. They speak our language poorly and we

can't understand them. Break open their heads, and put

the words of our language into their brains, so that we

can learn.'

Many good Christians who try to heed Jesus' advice to

become as little children have difficulty in understanding

some of the sermons for grown-ups. Preachers who can

speak 'theologese' or 'philosophese' ought to learn to

speak 'childese'. They would do well to remind them-

selves that their learned discourses are out of the reach of

some listeners; or that their sermons are neither practical

nor down-to-earth.

Jesus told us to feed His sheep - not His giraffes!

154 From the Lips of Children

Once Amélie told a playmate, Tell your father not to ask

my Grandpa to play chess. Grandpa hates to beat anyone

even at chess, and he hates taking other people's pawns.

I can see how he always loses at chess.'

I wish I were as altruistic as my grandchild perceives

me to be!

Once we arrived at a hotel in San Francisco, and the

manager informed us that we had no reservation and

there were no rooms available. We argued with him, but

it was no use. Finally Amélie spoke up. 'You're supposed

to be saints. Why are you arguing? You should be

praying/ Abashed, I bowed my head.

I had scarcely finished when the manager called me

over, and said, 'You're in luck! I've found you a room.'

Amélie simply said, yI hope you learned your lesson/

I had. But would I remember it? Would she?

Sometimes when my son Mihai felt tired and prayed too

briefly with his children, Amélie would pluck his sleeve

and say, 'Daddy, we haven't prayed enough/

Do we pray enough, by children's standards? We pray

to the heavenly Father through Jesus. Does the holy

Child think that we have prayed enough?

A group of thirteen-year-olds were asked to illustrate one

of the Ten Commandments by drawing a picture. Several

chose the seventh: 'You shall not commit adultery'.

One boy's effort showed a stick-man taking a stick-

woman by the arm. Above his head was a wordless

heart-shaped thought-balloon; above hers was a

thought-balloon containing the question, 'What about

my husband?'

When temptation blurs spiritual vision, it is helpful to

focus attention on the possible effects of such a wrong

Admonitions 155

course and to consider the likelihood of people getting

hurt.

When the first atomic bomb was dropped on

Hiroshima, the American pilot on his return was sur-

rounded by reporters who asked, 'What do you think

about this action?'

He replied, 'Why don't you ask the victims?'

The child in his rudimentary picture teaches us to put

ourselves into the situation of the wronged party before

we decide on a course of action that will cause that

wrong.

Mihai was perhaps five years old when he sat on my lap

and commented, 'You seem sad today. Why?'

I said, 'Because I realise I am a great sinner.'

He answered, 'You know what the proverb says: God

takes away His gifts from those who are dissatisfied. Be

thankful for what small goodness you have/

At the same age, Amélie counselled me, 'Never com-

plain about the state of your heart. You can be sure you

will go to heaven, believe me.'

Cornelia, an eight-year-old, once interrupted one of

my sermons. 'Don't tell lies when you preach! Don't say

you are bad! Aren't you washed by the blood of Jesus?

You are a saint!'

I was judging myself according to the deeds I had

committed; these children believed my sermons assert-

ing that those who trust in Jesus are made whiter than

snow.

Why should Christians not be able to say, with David's

simplicity, 'I am holy' (Psa. 86:2)? Indeed, we are called to

be saints (1 Cor. 1:2).

A father told his child, with a wealth of detail, the parable

of the lost sheep. To dramatise the story, he told how it

had crawled through a hole in the fence at night and then

156 From the Lips of Children

wandered away. But fortunately the Good Shepherd was

able to find it.

When his father finished, the child commented, 'I

suppose Jesus made sure He mended that hole in the

fence.'

Pastors too should concern themselves not only with

regaining the backslidden, but with seeing to it that their

parishioners do not backslide in the first place.

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once told about how

he lost his way when trying to find Philadelphia Town

Hall. He asked directions from a group of local boys.

They told him the way and asked him why he wanted to

go there.

T have to give a lecture, on "The Way to Heaven"/ he

replied. 'Would you like to come with me?'

One boy laughed. 'How would you know the way to

heaven, when you don't even know the way to the Town

Hall?'

Children, like parents, are inclined to reject advice on

how to get to heaven when their informant does not

know how to behave decently upon earth.

The fact is that understanding and behaviour are not

always cultivated to the same degree in a human being.

David, and many other biblical and modern saints, could

give very reliable information about the way to Paradise,

while wandering far off from the paths of righteousness

themselves.

Let us be sure that we discriminate between the man

and his message. And for the clearest directions about

the way to heaven, let us choose the Word of God.

A group of ten or so Christians of different persuasions

were gathered in my home. We were having a heated

debate about biblical problems.

The holy rule had been forgotten: that when discussion

Admonitions 157

waxes hot, it should be abandoned. People shouted at

each other in anger.

Mihai, who was about four years old at the time, was

present. When the argument reached a peak, he said four

Greek words quietly: 'Kardia kai psyche mia.'

The others, assuming he was speaking in tongues,

asked me what they meant. I translated: 'One heart

and one soul.' They were stunned into silence. The

discussion ceased.

The only explanation I can offer is that Mihai must have

heard me when I read the New Testament aloud in the

original. The words occur in Acts 4:32: 'Now the multi-

tudes of those who believed were of one heart and one

soul.' I would have drawn my wife's attention to the

beauty of the words, and the fact that they rhyme - kardw

. . . mia; and I would have explained to her what they

meant.

Mihai had apparently remembered all this, and used

the words at the right time.

Explanations

"I'm playing ball with God."

When Amélie was eight, she asked me to tell her yet

again the story of how Jesus washed His disciples' feet.

When I came to the words spoken to Peter - 'Unless I

wash your feet, you have no part with Me' - she was very

sad.

'Jesus didn't wash my feet; so I have no part with Him

either/ she mourned.

Explanations 159

I tried to explain. 'You were baptised. You have seen

others being baptised.'

'But that's no help/ she countered. 'Jesus said that He

must wash our feet. Anything else will not do.'

A chill travelled down my spine. I quoted many Bible

verses before I found one that satisfied her completely:

'The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins' - those

of the head, the hands, the feet, 'just everything/ I

explained.

'Well then/ she asked, 'if you are washed by Jesus, you

are absolutely sure of entering heaven?'

'Absolutely sure.'

'Are you positive?'

Tes, of course/

Then give me the names of the disciples whose feet He

washed/

I started to give her a few names. She broke in: 'Didn't

He wash Judas' feet as well?'

'Yes, He did.'

Then it is absolutely certain that Judas Iscariot is in

Paradise/

'I'm afraid not/

'Why not?'

'Because he betrayed his Lord by selling Him for thirty

pieces of silver/

Amélie brought the discussion to an end by observing,

with great candour and perception, 'Grandpa, it's not

enough to be washed by Jesus; you have to behave

afterwards.'

In that one sentence, she had summed up the entire

epistle of James.

A Catholic child of eight gave a good explanation of

'holiness': 'Every person has a circle round his head, just

as we see in the holy images. Some walk carefully so as to

be right under the circle. Then it lights up. They are the

160 From the Lips of Children

saints. As for the rest of us, the circle remains invisible.'

No saint could have explained it better.

Nina and her small brother were fascinated by the siren

of a passing ambulance.

Attempting to educate the wide-eyed toddler, Nina

explained, They have the siren so that cars will stop and

let them go past.'

Her brother disagreed. 'I don't think so. They make a

big noise so that everybody will know "Here is somebody

you should pray for because he's in great need." '

Who was right? I suspect both were!

I once read to Mihai from 1 Corinthians 11:28 - 'Let a man

examine himself.

Puzzled, he asked, 'How?'

I said, 'We must knock on our chests and ask, "Heart,

do you love? Heart, do you love?" ' To illustrate, I smote

myself hard on the chest.

Mihai objected. 'In the railway station, I saw a man

going from one train wheel to another, striking them

with a hammer. I asked him to let me do it. When he

handed me the hammer, I was surprised to see how light

it was. He explained that if the wheels were struck with a

heavy hammer at every station, they would eventually

break.' (What Mihai had seen, of course, was

the process of testing wheels for damage by listening to

the vibrations of the metal when struck.)

'So/ continued Mihai, 'I believe we ought not to beat

too hard on our chests, but only very lightly. Otherwise

we might break our hearts! We should ask the heart very

gently, "Do you love?" and if the heart whispers "Yes,"

we ought to be content.'

I learned something valuable that day. Self-

examination, yes; but not self-torture.

Explanations 161

Kindergarten children often surprise us with their un-

expected juxtapositions of ideas. Looking at a picture-

book about Africa, a five-year-old concluded, There

must have been a lot of ice in the Sahara, and a lot of

people must have slipped and fallen over - or God

wouldn't have put so much sand on it!'

Can we fault this child, for trying to make sense out of a

world for which the Father cares so deeply?

A rabbi walking down the street saw a little child playing

with a ball. He fell into conversation with him.

'What are you doing?'

The boy replied, Tm playing ball with God.'

The rabbi laughed. 'How do you do that?'

The little one replied, T throw the ball up to Him, and

He throws it back down to me.'

We should strive, like little children, to interpret events

like these with such simplicity. Things do not fall because

of the Law of Gravity, but because God allows them to fall

for our good. He may use the Law of Gravity, which He

ordained, to accomplish His ends; but we should see His

hand in all that happens to us.

We interact with a living God, our loving Father; not

with blind laws that impinge upon our material, psycho-

logical or spiritual world.

A father gave pocket-money to each of his children, and

asked how much of it they were going to give to Jesus.

The youngest replied, 'Nothing'.

Surprised, the father queried, 'Don't you want to show

Jesus how much you love Him?'

T don't have to show Him a thing,' the toddler said

earnestly. 'He knows exactly how much I love Him, even

if I don't put a penny in the basket. '

The child was quite right. We must learn not to use

religious jargon when we speak to children. To show

162 Front the Lips of Children

Jesus we love Him, we give ourselves. Then because we

have given ourselves, we delight in giving things. God

doesn't need our money - the cattle on a thousand hills

are His - but He allows us the pleasure and privilege of

rilling human need by sharing with others.

Sometimes children display a refreshing honesty.

When Mrs. Booth of The Salvation Army preached on

one occasion, she noticed a child in the front row crying.

She paused to comment, T am moved to see a child

weeping at the sufferings of Jesus.'

An adult might have been happy to accept the compli-

ment. But the child stood up and admitted, 'No, lady; an

insect got into my eye.'

Let us not pretend to have more spirituality than we

actually possess!

Bramwell Booth was the General of The Salvation Army.

His young children prayed, 'Dear Lord, send the Army a

lot of money to make Papa happy.'

Alex says of his father, 'He wants to be a millionaire so

he can give all the money to the Church/

It is not money, but the love of money that is the root of

all evil.

Children make theological mistakes just as adults do. A

pastor once delivered a rousing sermon about sin and

hell.

'One thing is certain,' he thundered. 'Every man,

woman and child in this parish will die one day. There is

no escape!'

A boy in the front row began to giggle.

'Every person in this parish,' reiterated the pastor, 'will

die.'

The boy continued to laugh.

Explanations 163

Affronted, the pastor challenged him. "Why are you

laughing?'

Tm not from this parish/ he replied.

Amélie at the age of five volunteered her own explana-

tion as to why the capital of Rumania is called Bucharest.

'It's because the country is Communist, and if you're

caught with a religious book, arrest will follow.'

In a small provincial town in Rumania I went to the

Presbyterian church and asked for the pastor. Some

children were playing in the churchyard and one of

them, who was about twelve years old, offered to take me

to the manse.

As we walked, I asked him about himself and learned

that he was to be confirmed the next week. I asked him,

'Do you believe in Christ?'

He replied determinedly, 'Oh, no. I'm only getting

confirmed because my mother really insists/

'Why do you feel like that?'

His answer was remarkable. 'I believe that if it were

true that God created, 2,000 years ago, the marvellous

Christ I'm taught about, He would also have made some

little Christ in every generation, in every town, to show

us that such a character is possible. But - I've never met a

Christ. My father is dead, my mother is poor and has lots

of children. Nobody has ever given me a sweet or shown

me any kindness. There never was a Christ.'

I asked another question: 'Isn't your pastor a little

Christ?'

'No/ he said.

We had arrived at the pastor's house. The boy left. I

took the opportunity of relating to the pastor what the

child had said, emphasising his desire to meet a little

Christ.

164 From the Lips of Children

'What an idiot!' said the pastor.

He was right. But who was the idiot?

Little children love stories. When Amélie was five she

begged, 'Grandpa, please tell me about Jesus, but every

little bit, from when He was born to the very end.' Then

she added, 'I know you can't do that. Nobody can tell the

whole story of Jesus because it isn't finished yet.'

And so it is written in Mark 1:1 that the evangelist

records only 'the beginning of the gospel about Jesus

Christ/

Let us also acknowledge that we know very, very little;

but the little we do know is so beautiful that it is well

worth repeating and well worth investigating further.

I remember having to tell Mihai off for some wrongdoing

when he was small. Convicted, he stood before me with

bowed head. I asked him, /Why don't you look me in the

face?'

'I don't want to look at your mouth when it says harsh

words/ he said simply. 'I want to look at the loving heart

from which they come/

A child was taken to the opera for the first time. He saw

The Masked Ball and was very impressed.

At home, he said to his father, 'I didn't understand

what was happening on stage. What is the opera about?'

His father replied, 'It is all sung in Italian, and I don't

understand Italian. But the orchestra conductor's son is

in your class at school. When you are at his house, why

not ask his father? I'm sure he'll be glad to explain/

The boy did so, but the conductor could not help. 'I

have to spend my time seeing to it that every instrument

and singer comes in at the right time. I've never actually

watched what happens on stage, so I can't tell you. But

Explanations 165

wait a minute: the tenor who sings the leading role will be

here for tea soon. He'll explain everything/

So the boy asked the tenor, but he replied, 'I'm not on

stage all the time, and I've had to memorise so many

roles. ... I really don't care about what the others are

singing while I get a bit of rest in my dressing room. But

look, here is the stage manager. He'll tell you.'

The stage manager had little more to offer. 'I only have

a very general idea. My concern is the scenery, not the

plot.'

So the boy went to the author of the libretto, who

replied, 'I only wrote the words. I've wondered myself,

sometimes, about the weird music that draws attention

away from the words.'

He went to the composer, but he only said, 'The Masked

Ball? Who knows? As far as I'm concerned, the author

could have made the Governor of Boston a Spanish

cavalier. For me, the text was just an excuse for my own

musical fantasies.'

The child went back to his father, much enlightened.

'Nobody knows a thing. We're all playing some little part

in a drama we don't understand.'

So it is written in Scripture: The man who thinks he

knows something does not yet know as he ought to

know' (1 Cor. 8:2).

Love is the key to knowledge and to meaning.

When she was eleven, Amélie had to write an essay in

school on the subject of capital punishment. In her efforts

to gather all the arguments for and against she consulted

many people, including me.

Six-year-old Alex listened for a while, then gave his

unsolicited opinion: 'I am for capital punishment - but

with love.'

St. John of the Cross wrote, 'On the last day we will all

be judged by love.' Sometimes life obliges us to use harsh

166 From the Lips of Children

methods and take up unpopular attitudes; but even these

should be motivated by love.

The late Orthodox priest Sheludkov of Russia, a man

much persecuted, tells in his book about a twelve-year-

old boy in Moscow.

A terrible thing had happened; young Misha was a

believer, and the Communist teachers had found out.

A conclave of teachers gathered to persuade Misha to

abandon his faith. They asked him, 'How can you believe

in God? Have you ever seen Him?'

He answered, 'If I were to see Him, I would not believe

in Him. The real God is invisible. Gagarin the first

cosmonaut mocked Him saying, "I looked around in

space and could see no God." Was he so ignorant? Didn't

he know that God is invisible?'

We all wish sometimes that we could see God visible in

our lives, giving direct answers to our questions or

providing us with the things we most desire. But if He

were thus visible, He would not be God. In our sinful

state, we cannot look on Him and live. That is why God is

the Invisible in the events of our lives, the mysterious,

the awe-inspiring in our experiences.

We are pilgrims, bound for another world. What our

senses can perceive in this world will never satisfy the

human soul. We are looking for a better city, 'whose

builder and maker is God'.

Then we shall see our Redeemer face to face, and know

who He is.

The writer Elie Wiesel was once an inmate of a Nazi

concentration camp. He tells of a starving Jewish child

who was hanged for stealing a piece of bread.

The child asked for no explanation. He did not cry, nor

even protest. life had been given him without expia-

Explanatwns 167

nation, and in a cruel way; life was taken from him

without explanation.

Where was God?

God was right there, on the gallows with the child,

silent and hurting. What is there to say, in the solemnity

of such an hour?

Christ too was 'led like a lamb to the slaughter. . . He

did not open His mouth' (Isa. 53:7).

I explained to a child of nine that hatred is an evil.

She said, 'Then hate is sin, and so is love/

'Where did you get the idea that love is sinful?'

'Well,' she said, 7esus said we should love each other

as He loves us. Everything less is sin. I don't love

anybody as Jesus does. I would not die on a cross for

anybody/

From this discussion I held on to the concept that to

love less than Jesus does is sin.

On the altar of sacrifice in the temple of Jerusalem, the

blood of animals was to be found, that cleansed wor-

shippers from their trespasses. But once a year, the altar

itself had to be cleaned.

Before God, even our good deeds are like filthy rags.

Only Jesus' righteousness satisfies. Only His love is

worthy of this name.

One evening the son of a celebrated evangelist threw a

tantrum. When his mother went to sort him out, she

asked him why he had behaved so badly.

'I didn't do it,' he said. The devil did it.'

Oh, that we would have the wisdom not to attribute to

ourselves actions that we deplore, and not to despair

when we fall into sin! The devil really does seek con-

stantly to ensnare us in attitudes and actions that are

alien to our nature.

Let us place the blame where it belongs, and quietly

168 From the Lips of Children

acknowledge the mis-steps in our lives, and firmly de-

nounce the devil's doings in our lives.

And then let us pray:'Our Father. . . .lead us not into

temptation, but deliver us from evil.'

A boy was making a brave attempt to draw a dog in pen

and ink. The result was pleasing, except that the dog had

no tail.

Naturally, an adult who saw the picture asked,

'Where's his tail?'

He answered disingenuously, 'If s still in the ink-

bottle.'

Sometimes we are criticised for not being polished

saints. A few years ago, there was a saying that was

popular: 'Be patient with me - God isn't finished with me

yet.'

Our virtues are still 'in the bottle', along with His

promises.

'He who began a good work in you will carry it on to

completion until the day of Christ Jesus' (Phil. 1:6).

A child asked his mother how he was born. She told him,

'God sent you into the world.'

'And how were you born?'

'I was sent by God too.'

'And Grandmother?'

Tes, she was sent by God as well/

'Mummy, why has there been no sex for such a long

time in our family?'

In these days of television and Playboy Magazine,

children are aware of sex from a fragile age. They won't

stand for fables.

They should be told about sex, but told of it in its

fullness - its beauty and its dangers. They should know

that God has provided a framework for the precious gift

of life to appear.

Explanations 169

A child came back from Sunday School very excited. 'We

learned how Moses brought the Jewish people over the

Red Sea!' he told his mother. 'He just waved his stick,

and building materials fell from heaven! Then he waved

it again, and everything stuck together and made a huge

bridge! Then he waved his stick again - and there were

horses and carts to carry the old people!'

His mother frowned. I'm sure he can't have said that.'

'Well/ replied the child, 'if I told what he really said -

you wouldn't believe it!'

Nowadays children suck scepticism with their

mother's milk. They don't take Bible stories on trust.

We must not only tell children the stories of God's

miracles. We must also explain to them that an almighty

God can do things we cannot; and we must explain to

them why God worked miracles, and how trustworthy is

His Word.

Epilogue

Love for God should always

resemble that of a child.

Not long ago, I had a dream that made a vivid impression

upon me.

I was in a prison cell again. On my bed was a giant

caterpillar. I wanted to get rid of it, but couldn't because

the door was locked. I had no alternative but to kill it, and

I succeeded in doing so only after great efforts. Ex-

hausted from my exertions, I suddenly realised that what

I had killed was the child in me - that capacity to believe

wholeheartedly, love unstintingly, trust implicitly. I had

killed the best in me.

Epilogue 171

I awoke with a feeling of great sorrow. Is it possible to

kill the child within the man?

Today, abortion is a controversial issue. Some fifteen

millions of the unborn have been killed in the United

States alone during the last decade. In Red China, new-

born girls are slaughtered by the thousand, because

women are not allowed to have more than one child and

they would rather have a boy.

We also kill spiritually. We murder the child within,

the child who, as Nietzsche wrote, 'wishes to play'. Even

Marx, that implacable foe of religion, was driven to

admit: 'I have to concede to Christianity one great merit.

It has taught men to love children/ It has done more than

that. It has taught men to love the child in themselves.

In this area, children's theology is unique.

After Christ had ascended to heaven, His followers

referred to Him as 'the holy child, Jesus' (Acts 4:27, av).

Why?

A Cambodian girl, Arn Chorn, who grew up in the

middle of the holocaust that annihilated at least two

million of her countrymen - including her family - gives

an interesting answer.

Children are less angry than adults and forget insults

more quickly. Maybe children know more about their

imperfections, and when we do, we have a chance to

laugh at ourselves more easily and not take ourselves

so seriously. Maybe as children, we can feel a brother-

hood of imperfection. Children are less sure that they

are absolutely right. Adults, who are sure that they are

absolutely right make war - even religious war - over

their absolute lightness.

Jesus chides us with the observation, Tou have forsaken

your first love' (Rev. 2:4) - a child's love. Love for God

should always resemble that of a child.

Many believe that the innocence of children is a myth

172 From the Lips of Children

created by adults. Freud went so far as to call children

'polymorph perverse'.

I do not wonder. He was repeating what David said

long ago: 'Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the

womb they are wayward and speak lies. Their venom is

like the venom of a snake' (Psa. 58:3-4).

This is the bitter complaint of a father who had several

wicked children. Perhaps Freud experienced similar

frustration.

As for Jesus, He admired in little children their un-

qualified love, trust and openness. When the religious

leaders and theologians of the day shut Him out, the little

ones, with their children's theology, accepted Him,

climbing all over Him, and, I think, hugging and kissing

Him with unabashed warmth and ardour. Without

knowing theology, they embraced the God about whom

theologians argue.

The heart of the gospel - the Good News to which all

Scripture testifies - is that God loves, forgives and

accepts His creatures; and Jesus came as Man to

demonstrate this true character of Deity (cf. John 3:16).

May God grant us the grace to grasp this, with the

simple faith of a child!

The author welcomes correspondence. You may write

to him at:

Christian Mission to the Communist World

PO Box 19

Bromley

Kent

BRI 1DJ

Who Speaks For God?

Charles Colson

In a day when the Christian gospel is mocked, when

moral absolutes are denied, when evil is rampant and

even welcomed, God calls his people to speak bravely on

his behalf. The issue of power, AIDS, capital punish-

ment, the trivialisation of sin, secularisation (particularly

within the Church), and the disastrous divide between

personal piety and public action are all examined by the

former aide to President Nixon in this cogent and chal-

lenging book on confronting the world with real Christ-

ianity.

'He combines a clear, attractive style, the sharpness and

precision of a top lawyer, the breadth of vision of a

statesman, with pungent biblical perspectives/ Church

Times

'Thought-provoking reading to dip into and mull over.'

Christian Family

One Heart, One Voice

Andrew Maries

What exactly is worship? And what part does music play

in its expression? Should every church have a choir?

What about structure - does it impede spontaneity?

These and other questions are explored in this practical

and challenging book on the ministry and mission of

music in worship. With a foreword by Betty Pulkingham.

'Here is practical and sensitive help from someone with a

classical music background, harnessed to an openness

for the needs of today's church.' Anne Watson

'Every minister and church musician should buy it.'

Church of England Newspaper

Andrew Maries worked closely with David Watson at St

Michael-le-Belfrey in York.

Heaven On Your Doorstep

Max Sinclair

The family is under threat today as never before. Even

Christians wonder whether God can make any differ-

ence when they hit problems.

Max Sinclair, author of bestseller Halfway To Heaven, has

discovered from experience that God both sets the stan-

dards for family happiness, and provides the means

whereby it can be achieved. Writing frankly about his

romance with Sue, marriage, parenthood, God's call to

full-time Christian work and the serious car accident

which left him partially paralysed, Max demonstrates

that the miracle of happier relationships is within the

grasp of every Christian.

The Bible is meant for children. Only the

children of Israel came out of slavery in Egypt;

the grown-ups stayed behind. Only trie chndren

of God enter neaven. It will be a country without

any grown-ups/

This observation by Richard Wurmbrand's grandson

Alex is just one of the many delightful anecdotes and

children's sayings in this attractively illustrated

volume. Children's insights sharpen adults' minds

and in collecting and commenting on them - many

from behind the Iron Curtain - Pastor Wurmbrana

challenges Christians to take seriously Jesus' teaching

thatnis followers must become like children.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand spent fourteen years in

Romanian Communist prisons for his faith, and is

author of several books including the classic

TORTURED FOR CHRIST

Table of Contents

From the Lips of Children