How do you explain to a child what is happening in our world today?
I asked that very question in this column exactly nine years ago, relating how, on a long road trip, one of my grandchildren had softly asked me, “What do you think about what all of you were talking about?”
I thought she had been asleep. But no, she had been quietly listening to us adults bemoaning how our world was reeling from one crisis and tragedy to another—senseless, unpredictable mayhem that had everyone on edge. And, of course, we were opining about the complex underlying reasons.
Our conversation, sad to say, had been on events of just the previous month—police shootings of unarmed civilians, terrorists armed with bombs attacking an airport, another armed with nothing more than a big truck mowing down scores of people, including many children, in France, and another horrible mass shooting.
I immediately regretted she had heard all that—it’s too much for little ears to hear and young minds to comprehend.
I’m even more sorry about the world we are handing to the next generation.
Nine years later
That same grandchild is now a young adult, and I’m again sorrowful that just last week we stood together watching the news about the U.S. bombing the Iranian nuclear facilities and listening to analysts opine about whether this is the trigger, waiting to be pulled, that will drag other nations into deeper conflict and maybe world war.
Later I thought about what I wrote nine years ago:
“How do you explain to children what is happening when we adults grapple with understanding it ourselves?
“Clear, simple answers are difficult to come by, and a 10-second stroll into the restaurant hardly allows for substantive dialogue. So when drink and food choices quickly distracted her from the topic at hand, I was grateful for the reprieve. I needed a little more time to think this through, to recover from the lousy job I did in stumbling around for a simple and honest, yet reassuring, answer that a child could understand.
“She hasn’t brought the question up again, but it’s hardly left my mind. Children don’t need complicated analyses and answers to life’s big questions. But frankly, neither do adults. It’s time we adults stop acting so childishly, lift our eyes higher than the issues of religion, race and politics that are dividing and destroying us, and reduce life to its simplest principles.”
Everything will be okay
So, here’s my attempt to answer a child’s question. I think:
We need to admit that we humans are utterly incapable of solving our own problems.
We—every single one of us—need to take a long, honest look inside ourselves and humbly admit that we are wrong in so many ways we think and live.
We need to quit ignoring and turn to a higher authority than ourselves—God!
We need to really listen to Him, repent and start doing what He says. Jesus’ message was clear and simple: “Repent and believe in the gospel!”
We’d better start right now, because we’re digging a hole from which we won’t recover without disastrous consequences.
Knowing history and human nature, most won’t really listen to God, but some will. You can choose to.
The Bible is right—the only viable solution for our world’s problems is for Jesus Christ to return as soon as possible.
Ultimately, everything’s going to be okay because—and only because—He is going to return.
And the best part is that this isn’t just what I think; it’s what God tells us.
Nine years later, I believe these things more than ever. And I think it’s what God has been trying to tell all of us, as His children, for a long time.
