YOUR FRIEND, HERBIE
I owned a book years ago called Children's Prayers. A little boy must have surveyed the cost of a life lived with the God who makes war against all that hurts and cripples and suffocates people. Seeing what God stands against and that he purposes to right all wrongs and wanting to be a part of it the boy wrote this brief note: "Dear God, count me in. Your friend Herbie."
The courage of some children is astonishing. Haven't I personally seen little children throw themselves against a drunken brute of a man who was attacking their mother! Literally thrown out of the way they came at him again.
The sensitivity and compassion of children is profoundly moving. Wasn't I there in a house on the Shankill Road all those years ago when twelve year-old Jim was sobbing at the loss of his granddad and eight year-old Aaron sat on the arm of the chair, tear-filled and silent, with his arm around his best friend's shoulder!
Such images stay with us vivid and creative even after twenty or sixty-five years. To rise and in the name of God to confront the world is the courage we need. To say with conviction: "Dear God, count me in" is no small thing. And along with our courage, to have compassion and support for the hurting is to be like Jesus.
The courage of some children is astonishing. Haven't I personally seen little children throw themselves against a drunken brute of a man who was attacking their mother! Literally thrown out of the way they came at him again.
The sensitivity and compassion of children is profoundly moving. Wasn't I there in a house on the Shankill Road all those years ago when twelve year-old Jim was sobbing at the loss of his granddad and eight year-old Aaron sat on the arm of the chair, tear-filled and silent, with his arm around his best friend's shoulder!
Such images stay with us vivid and creative even after twenty or sixty-five years. To rise and in the name of God to confront the world is the courage we need. To say with conviction: "Dear God, count me in" is no small thing. And along with our courage, to have compassion and support for the hurting is to be like Jesus.
Out of the mouths and lives of children God is calling his People to gallantry!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.