"It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." _ Luke 17.2
This is my friend Irv Steele. He is taking time out to hold a little Navajo baby. We both were working on the Rez at Tsaile AZ helping with Vacation Bible School. I love this picture because she is the picture of vulnerability. He is the image of tenderness. This may be one of my fondest memories from this mission trip.
Recently I worked in our Youth Camp where I met some kids with a great burden. They were part of the foster care system. Most of them had entered the system because of parents who were abusive, addicted, or who had simply abandoned them. Many of them had been further traumatized because of foster families who had taken them in for all the wrong reasons. One boy, who thought his family wanted him, had just been sent to another home because the wife was expecting and now that they would have children of their own--they didn't need him any more.
And daily I see kids in our own community who are troubled, searching, struggling because of parents who make no attempt to give them attention and boundaries, or who are so excessively discipling that they are crushing these kids' spirits.
Jesus was very, very clear -- a young life entrusted into our care -- is a life that belongs to Him. It is a life He created and would go to the Cross to redeem. It is a life he watches over, desiring that child to be safe and to be able to follow His leading into being a mature part of His kingdom. It is a life for which we as adults will be held accountable.
Our personal ambitions, our jobs, our hobbies, our choices will not be excuses for allowing them to stumble, for discouraging their walk with Him, for not experiencing the full measure of God's love.
* This devotional is published on behalf of the Church of God of Landisville and its friends. (C) 2009 by Stephen L. Dunn. All rights reserved.
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