(photo taken in 2004)Last evening, I sat down at my computer and checked one of the national news sites. There I was confronted with the headline and accompanying gruesome pictures from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, where over 100 have been brutally murdered. My stomach sank. I sat there motionless staring at the carnage depicted before me. Suddenly, Matthew appeared from upstairs. Not having time to toggle to a different web page, and not wanting him to glimpse the bloody photos, I snipped, "Matt, go back upstairs!" He immediately complied, but I felt the pang of having raised my voice to him, and his confusion at my doing so. I went quickly upstairs to seek him out, and he was playing and seemed to have forgotten all about it in a matter of seconds. I gave him a big hug and explained that he had not done anything wrong, but that I didn't want him to see a scary picture that was on the news.
At 6:00 this morning, Matt came into our bedroom and, like many mornings, crawled in between David and me. As he snuggled into my shoulder, my mind went back to India, and I held him closer. I know that I will not be able to protect him from the horrors of the world much longer. His innocence, and Emma's, right now is so precious. Matt and Emma's tender hearts turn away from all things scary or disturbing. Last year, we had to leave the latest Veggie Tales movie ("The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything") before the first scene was even complete, because Matt found the bad pirate zucchini too scary!! Emma could not watch "March of the Penguins" because the discovery that some of the penguins die in those desolate conditions was too much for her to bear. We laugh, but this morning I thought about the children who were surely witness, and perhaps even victim, to the terrorism in Mumbai, and how their little eyes should never have to see such wickedness. Their innocence has been brutally stolen from them, never to be regained.
This Thanksgiving morning, I thank God for many things. My country, where such attacks are rare. Our armed service men and women who put themselves into those gruesome scenes so that we are protected from them. For the innocence of childhood, and the hope of innocence one day restored through Christ. Advent is upon us when we celebrate Christ's first coming into this world. And I say, Maranatha, Lord Jesus! Return!
2 comments:
This is my favorite post of yours, Jen. It brought tears- you are so on the mark- our children are innocent and tender. And then I think of the innocent and tender children that are forced to grow up in an abrupt intrusive shattering minute. I have confidence The Shepherd sees and is moved.
Love, Lita
It is such a tough thing, watching the innocence of our children peel away before they are equipped to deal with it. I think there is nothing wrong, and much right, with extending their innocence as long as possible, as long as, at the same time, we equip them with a practical faith that will help them when they inevitably will face the world. Well done Jen!
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