A Lenten Devotion by Mary Memmott
“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 19: 14
I was thinking about Jesus’ apostles and their attempt to keep the children away from him as I enjoy my school vacation week. I know most modern translations do not use the word “suffer” but as I relish my break from my 8th grade students, I think perhaps the word might be correct. All is not sweetness and light when one teaches “little children,” especially adolescents with all their yearning for independence and impulsivity, and occasionally terribly bad decisions. There is some suffering in spending time with them, always, even as those interactions give glimpses of the kingdom of heaven.
I was thinking of one group of students in particular, who I meet with once a month as part of a “citizenship action group” at my school. This group of students has identified environmental action as their focus, an area I am passionate about. But I am also passionate about including student voice and choice, so I listen to their ideas, even as I sometimes cringe at their initial brainstorms.
Case in point: for our Martin Luther King Day service fair, the 8th graders are invited to create an invitation to simple service action that younger students can pledge to support. My group has chosen a focus on trees, so I was ready to help them craft something about raising funds to plant a tree on our campus, or take care of a tree at home — something that would, naturally, involve a real tree that could be seen and touched. But no, my web-obsessed teens wanted to invite younger students to download a web browser that would donate money to tree-planting every time you use it. This was inviting students to spend more time online, when my whole career I have tried to find more ways to get students outside.
But then I researched the browser, Ecosia, and it turned out to be fairly benign. It does donate a lot of money to actual tree-planting, without doing too much harm to the searchers who use it (except perhaps using up some memory on your computer). My students were excited about spreading the word about something they cared about. The week of the service fair, I was out sick, and my students set up their booth, invited other students to participate, and educated younger students about trees with enthusiasm and passion. The subs and fill-in colleagues who interacted with this group said they were engaged, enthusiastic, and on task. I was just grateful they accomplished something and stayed out of trouble while I was out of commission.
I still hope to get them to plant a real tree this spring — and I’m sure some suffering will be involved in getting them to that point. But in the meantime I will try to remember that in their voices, questions, and ideas are glimpses of the kingdom of heaven, if I am willing to listen.
Open us, O God, to glimpse the kingdom of God in the wisdom of children. Amen.