There’s a theological declare percolating in these conversations: our kids are created within the picture of a God who delights in freedom and pleasure. Their humanity displays God’s picture in all its range, playfulness, and chance. I like the instance from creation, which bears the marks of God’s creativeness—the riot colours of a sundown, the odd fantastic thing about a platypus, the “Leviathan to sport within the sea,” (Psalm 104), the limitless number of seashells and snowflakes. All of that is echoed when youngsters spill out onto the sidewalk in laughter or race down the block on bikes–we catch a glimpse of that divine extravagance. After they experiment, take dangers, and sure, generally get harm, we’re reminded that grace is woven into rising up, and humanity is just not outlined by concern or shortage, however by love, belief, and abundance.
The nice irony of recent parenting is that we spend monumental vitality creating enrichment alternatives whereas overlooking the presents of unstructured time and area—of roaming the neighborhood, of taking dangers and even generally getting bruises, of discovering the world on their very own phrases.
Within the return to pre-pandemic trendy life these previous couple of years, we’ve rapidly drifted again into the churn of “regular life”—college drop-offs, full calendars, and crowded sidelines. What as soon as felt fleeting and treasured throughout lockdown—gradual mornings, being outdoors regardless of the climate, household walks, dinners with out hurry—has been eclipsed by the stress to maintain tempo. It’s exceptional how rapidly trendy expectations rush again in, as if nothing modified. We discover ourselves swept up once more, pulled between the eager for simplicity and the calls for of productiveness, and smartphones because the begrudging answer to all of it.
And but, beneath all of the noise and chaos of parenting lies one thing deeper than nostalgia, pointing us towards what we consider about God, childhood, and the form of neighborhood we’re known as to nurture right here.
The church has an important function. Our communities will be locations the place youngsters are usually not hushed however heard, and maybe they may even lead us of their questions and giggles, as their presence reverberates by way of sanctuaries and fellowship halls. In a world of accelerating isolation—screens in each hand, security fears at each flip—we will provide one thing countercultural: room to discover, to create, to surprise, to be boisterous and a bit of rowdy. For all of us.
