Suffer the little children

Jesus said, "Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.” Then he hugged the children and blessed them.

Mark 10:14-16 (CEB)

Jesus liked children. He blessed them, hugged them, spoke of them as closer to the Realm of God than adults. To embrace God's Realm is to do so like a child. I have always taken that to mean something like: with wonder, simplistically, playfully, and trustingly. For adults to enter God's Realm is to enter a second naïveté, a second innocence, a second Eden. God's Realm belongs to such.

What a shame that such innocence is becoming a shorter time in the lives of children! The rush to adulthood now grips pre-teens in clothing and hair styles, in make-up, in all too quickly leaving behind childish ways. As a culture, we are pushing children too fast beyond where Jesus said we all ought to be.

As I write, the UK is reeling following allegations that a well-known BBC radio DJ, TV presenter and philanthropist, who died last year, was the leader of a pedophile ring. Sir Jimmy Savile has been accused by over forty adults that he sexually abused them. Once the first accusation was taken seriously the floodgates opened. Doubtless more is to come. It makes deeply saddening and troubling reading. Here was a man who did amazing things for folk, "Uncle Jimmy," Jim'll Fix It," while all the time using his position to do great harm. Innocence gone. Childhood lost.

In the UK, also this week, a little girl, April Jones, was kidnapped and now presumed murdered. The alleged perpetrator was known to the girl and her family. Pray that April's body may soon be found, for her family's sake.

These high-profile instances of harming children are the tip of a very large iceberg. In 2010, there were 1,560 child fatalities because of abuse and neglect in the USA. That means that in less than two years—every two years—more children are killed by those who ought to care for them than were killed by terrorists on September 11 2001. Across the USA in 2010, there were 3.3 million referrals of child maltreatment involving 5.9 million children. The scale of child maltreatment is staggering.

As a society, we are failing many children. Jesus said, "Allow the children to come to me ..."

Today, spare a thought for the children.