Sep 13, 2024 |
WLSU, Our Children
| The Rev. Philip DeVaul
WLSU, Our Children
What does it look like to value our children?
How do we care for them? What is our responsibility to our children?
I have been thinking about this a lot. And I want to say this very clearly: I don’t just mean my responsibility for the children I call mine. I also do not mean our responsibility to children because of what they will mean in the future when they are grown up. I mean our shared responsibility for the children among us right now. What is their value? What is their place in our community? And what is our responsibility to them? All of them, by the way. All of them.
I am a parent. I have three children, and I confess that much of my wondering about this has been based on my experience of raising them. More specifically, I am raising them in public schools in Cincinnati. And of course, that pushes me to think regularly about our city’s commitment to children. In the aftermath of yet another school shooting, I wonder if we value their safety, their very lives.
And I confess, I wonder if my children were not in public schools, would I care so much? And if I didn’t have children at all, would I care the way I care now?
Jesus didn’t have children. Jesus didn’t have a wife.
