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Editorial: A Glimpse of Heaven by Kevin Sims
A Glimpse of Heaven
I love children. Couldn’t eat a whole one though! It’s an old joke but it still makes me laugh. Culinary thoughts aside though, I do love children. There’s something special children possess that adults don’t have – and it makes them intriguing.
When Jesus told his disciples, ‘Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these’ (Matthew 19:14, Good News Bible), he was turning conventional wisdom on its head. Where the world told – and still tells – children to behave more and more like adults, Jesus held up childlikeness as something to be celebrated and aspired to.
There’s a sharpness to the way children think, a spark, a brightness that we grown-ups don’t get near. I guess life and responsibility blunt, dull and dampen us to the extent that we lose that ‘something special’ forever.
As the parent of a three-year-old, blond-haired ball of energy, I’m constantly being reminded of what I’ve lost. Noah always wants to be doing something when I’d rather be resting. He wants to chat constantly when I’d rather have some peace and quiet. He wants to be up and about the second he’s awake (usually in time to greet the dawn) while I’m trying to snuggle deeper into my bed and get ‘just five more minutes’ of sleep.
Some days he makes me feel old and tired without doing anything!
I wouldn’t change him for the world, though. To me he practically defines what it is to be alive – he’s positively overflowing with life.
This issue of All the World is about children – mind you, what could be a more appropriate theme for an issue that focuses on development? Children at school, children at home, children playing, children helping other children – they’re all here.
With 2005 being The Salvation Army’s Year for Children and Youth, this issue is a taster of how children’s lives are being transformed.
‘Give me the child and I’ll show you the man,’ says the old parable. By enabling thousands of children around the world to have better lives The Salvation Army is helping to shape the lives of the men (and women) of the future. We can hope that today’s children who are the recipients of love and care will grow into adults who want to give back what they themselves were given.
As I read of the potential The Salvation Army is unleashing I’m aware that this issue isn’t just full of children – it’s full of life itself and, if we take Jesus’ teaching to heart, it’s even a glimpse of Heaven.
Now that’s got to be a good reason to read on.
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