Oh, For the Heart of a Little Child
Backstory: Today’s picture was taken at our church. Two 3-year-old children sitting next to each other gingerly caressing the head of an infant, the new brother of the child on the right.
4/29/2026
This image is the antithesis of all the hatred and division that define our country right now. These young children know nothing of the news feeds that we feast on to a greater or lesser degree. They know nothing of race. The inequities of life haven’t touched them yet. They just know that they are friends. They love seeing each other at church and run to embrace as if they were long lost relatives, finally meeting after years of absence.
And I guess they are–relatives. We are all a part of the human web and something inside of us will draw us to one another like those kids gleefully running into each other’s arms, if we don’t imbibe the rhetoric that divides us.
And perhaps the part that speaks loudest to me is tenderness these little ones feel for the most vulnerable; the helpless infant that is sleeping soundly under the gentle touch of their tiny fingers. They seem to sense, at a heart level, that we are indeed the keepers of our brothers and sisters who need our sympathizing touch and protection. That inborn realization in those little ones is intact; life in our harsh world hasn’t yet chipped away at it, eroding it and leaving an empty hole where it once was.
God, give us the heart of a little child.