I just watched a new version of Oliver Twist. It shows the barefoot, ill-kept orphan boys carrying their bowls to mealtime where each will receive one measly serving of an awful gruel. Those who run the orphanage gorge themselves on a delicious feast a few feet away from the half-starved boys. The most striking part of the opening scene, however, is the phrase stenciled on a stone wall behind the boys; GOD IS LOVE.
Are those three words true? Absolutely.
Is the experience of the orphans telling them it’s true? Certainly not.
Which do you think they will believe?
No matter how creatively we proclaim God’s word to children at church, they are more likely to believe their experience of the faith at home. That’s because incarnation trumps proclamation.
Ask anyone who ministers to students and they will tell you that kids from unbelieving families need more than an hour or two at church to establish deep roots. They need to experience the reality of a God-honoring home. They need someone to invite them into and give them a tangible vision of things the church can only describe.
Every child deserves regular exposure to the life-giving warmth of a loving marriage and of parents who lay their lives down for their children. Ideally that will happen at home. But if not, they need “free samples” that can give them anincarnational picture of what the words “God is love” really mean.
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