Preschool: The Image of Christ. Mark 9:30-37

There are several preschool classes that meet right next door to my campus. Often, we see the children playing on the quad, or the really tiny ones being moved around campus in mega-strollers that rival SUV's in size and comfort. The older toddlers will sometimes come on campus "leashed" together like a sled-dog team, always with a tot at the head of the line leaning forward to try to make the group walk to his or her pace. Last week, some of the older kids, in the four-to five year range, were playing on the quad. Two little girls were giggling as they kept pushing the other to the ground, only to have that child arise and push her opponent to the ground. The teachers had gathered the other children and were moving out, but had to pause while these youngsters played out their shoving match, with full belly laughs punctuating the mid-morning air.
Whenever I see these children on campus, I stop and watch them, with a mixture of laughter and tears. I laugh, because their laughter and frolicking nature is infectious, and I cannot help but to join in. Sometimes there are tears, because in these little ones I see my daughter, now a beautiful woman, when she was in preschool, walking along, singing, smiling and laughing. At other times I see my son, a handsome young man now, when he was little more than a toddler, ball cap on backwards, trying to climb on the jungle gym.
Perhaps it is because I am a father that I so love the instance in Mark when Jesus places a child before the disciples and tells them that when they see a child, they are seeing him. In that day, children were considered nuisances, invisible and powerless. Being a parent, I cannot fathom how such an idea about children can exist, even though I know of changing cultural norms. When we become parents, something that happens to someone else's child happens to our child, in a way. We identify with all children as if they were our own. We feel protective, proud or happy for them, just as their parents do.
A couple I know adopted a little girl from China. She had been found in a field when she was three weeks old. She had been left to die. Thankfully, she was rescued, and a little less than one year later, she was in a new home with a loving family. Jesus tells us that such children are the embodiment of Him. Christians cannot look into the face of a child without seeing the eyes of Christ. Think about that the next time children are playing in a yard or making noise with their excited chattering. At such times, we hear the voice of God!