home | board | compass | prayer | eCard

[Main Index]

03/02/2002 Entry: "At a child's party"

It was my daughter Ruth's 5th birthday on Thursday and today we had a party. Twentyseven children gathered in the church hall for singing, dancing, games, cake and all the rest of it. Hard work, especially for Jayne, but everyone seemed to have a good time. We had an entertainer who did magic, told daft jokes, modelled with balloons - I'm sure you know the sort of thing. What struck me when I was watching him that his routine could have been done 30 years ago and we'd have laughed just as loud. For all their sophistication, the children of this generation are not really any different to their predecessors.That might seem like an obvious observation, but I think it's easy to miss the importance of it. Strip away the accretions of culture and generation and you find that children are essentially the same. Sit them in front of a man in a silly hat who can make a rabbit appear from nowhere and they'll laugh with the same joy and wonder.So much human strife is the result of pointing out and emphasising the differences between cultures, nations and races. Longing for a world in which people can get along despite their differences is called 'naive' and 'unrealistic'. But if, at 5 years old, we're all the same maybe there are lessons our children can teach us about the nature of reality. Perhaps this is part of what Jesus meant when he said, "Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it."