This is my grand-nephew, my sister's grandson. My sister, my niece, and my grandnephew visited us a couple weeks before Christmas. A whirlwind weekend to say the least, but so very wonderful.
My niece told me a story about her son, who had all of a sudden stopped wanting to go visit his grandpa, her father. He had always loved going to grandpa's house, so of course, she was concerned. Why the change? was someone there hurting him or being mean?
What she finally got out of him was that he didn't want to go to Grandpa's because grandpa started telling him scary stories...scary stories about what? ...."about Jesus".
My heart dropped, My grandmother used to tell me scary stories about Jesus and how I was going to hell because I wasn't baptised, etc. I was 8, he is only 5.
(FYI - I never went to church at all, my niece takes her son to a baptist church fairly regularly, but he has never been exposed to the bible really.)
Time after time, Jesus held children up and said to adults "you have to be like one of these to get into the kingdom of heaven"
Can you imagine how Jesus must feel when one of these little ones is scared of him based on an adult getting the message wrong?
The good news is, that Grandpa (who is a wonderful guy, and good friend of mine)decided to buy him a kid's bible-book for a Christmas present. My niece agreed.
Should we evangelize children?
I don't have any answers, but a plea.
Please don't scare the children. They don't have the life experiences yet to understand most of the old and new testament,much less the Crucifixion. The great majority of adults don't even seem to understand it.
Best intentions.
If you are "religious" and think a child in your family may not be getting the "religion" you want him/her to have, please read everything Jesus says about children, and ponder it in your heart, before you talk to them. Talk to their parents all you want, but take care with the little ones.
Peace
Keren
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