Kid Sense

"Isaac's unbiblical cord came off last night," our 7-year-old granddaughter Anne-Marie announced over a taco supper with Thanksgiving guests tonight.  Her little brother will  be three weeks old tomorrow, Thanksgiving day.  Maddie, his 4-year-old sister, had asked if he had an "invisible cord" upon first seeing him in the hospital.

Earlier today, the children had been playing UNO with their doting Uncle Trevor from Texas. Helping her with the game, Trevor said to Maddie, "Now look at your hand to see what colors you have," referring to her cards.  Holding the cards in one hand, Maddie dutifully scrutinized the palm of the other hand, then turned it over to examine the back. Children are so dear in their misunderstandings.

Maddie's parents had been trying to teach her to identify her right and left hands.  Her father pointed out the trick of  holding the fingers of the left hand straight,  with the thumb at a right angle, making an "L," thus indicating the left hand.  Then he realized she can't read, and might not recognize the "L."  Instead of sucking her thumb, Maddie has from birth put her two middle fingers of her left hand in her mouth when tired or sleepy. They solved the problem by saying, "The one where you suck your fingers is your left hand."

Jonah 4:11 speaks about the people of Nineveh, where God said more than 120,000 people did not know their right hand from their left, possibly speaking of children or those who didn't know right from wrong.  A stubborn Jonah at last preached to the people, whose repentance saved their wicked city.  Teaching children right from wrong is a gradual process.  Yesterday in the children's section of Barnes and Noble, Anne-Marie was very careful in selecting a book.  "I don't want anything with magic in it," she said earnestly.  A difficult task, indeed!

The comment at dinner about the baby's cord set off a discussion among the younger set and had them quizzically puzzling out this mystery.  "That's how the baby gets food and air," a daddy explained, "It's their lifeline!" Soon they were talking about belly buttons, merrily singing a Veggie Tales ditty on the subject.  But  I think Maddie had it right, all along.  There is an invisible cord that connects us to our Creator, drawing us toward heaven.  That cord is Jesus Christ, without whom not anything was made.  He is our spiritual sustenance, our lifeline to God.  And that's not unbiblical!