My kids love to go to the play area at the local mall. It’s an area on the bottom level in the middle of the mall that has comfortable benches (for the parents) surrounding an area with large, stationary plastic toys for kids to climb on, fall off of, etc. The kids love running around with other kids and having fun. We have this routine where we go to the mall, play on the play area for awhile, then pay too much for cookies as we leave.
A couple years ago, when she was about two and a half, I took Ellie, the oldest, to the play area. Ellie is a very sociable girl, and she loves not only to play, but to play with someone. She would go up to girls that looked about her age and ask them if they wanted to play with her. Often, though, kids around her age didn’t have the language skills she did, and they didn’t know how to respond to her. They would just look at her and say nothing, or they would turn away. Other times, Ellie would ask kids about her height to play with her, but because she is tall, kids her height were often older, and they sometimes didn’t want to play with a younger kid.
Of course, there were plenty of times when Ellie successfully matched herself up with a playmate, but on this particular day, she wasn’t having much luck.
Sitting on the benches along the perimeter of the play area, I watched her approach child after child, sweetly and politely asking them if they wanted to play with her.
That day, no one did.
As I sat there, I found my emotions becoming involved. As Ellie approached a child, I would anxiously await the child’s response to her. When the response was negative (either by saying no, or by saying nothing), I became more anxious for the next child to respond positively. This happened several times in a row, and gradually, I noticed other emotions: desperation, hurt, and anger. “Play with my child!” I wanted to shout. “My sweet, precious girl is asking you to play, and you should be glad to!” I also found myself wanting to beg, “Please be kind to her and play with her. Don’t reject her. Don’t hurt her feelings.”
You know what it feels like to want acceptance for your child. You know what it feels like to send your child out into the big scary world of the play area, or preschool, or a birthday party, and hope with everything in your mother-heart that the other kids love your child even a fraction of as much as you do.
I bet God knows how we feel.
Think about it: God has to send his children (us) out into a world full of other people, where he knows we will sometimes find acceptance, but sometimes get hurt and rejected. As I sat there at the mall, I thought to myself, I wonder if God sometimes wants to say the same things I wanted to say: “Love My child! Accept her! She is special and precious to me, and I want you to see that and treat her that way.”
You know what? I know he does, because that’s exactly what he says to us in the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches that each human being is a marvelous creation of God, made in his image. And how many times does God, especially in the person of his son, Jesus, tell us to love each other?
Why do you think he says that so many times? Why does he place so much emphasis on the way we treat each other?
Because he wants us to be like him in the way we love—fully and completely, without respect for persons or situation.
And because he wants the same acceptance and love for us that we want for our children.
Dear mommy friend, do you love others the same way you want others to love your child? If other kids treated your child the way you treat other people, would that be okay with you? Would that kind of treatment be what you want for your child?
Spend some time thinking about that this week. In your interactions with others, ask yourself if the way you are treating them is the way you would want someone to treat your child.
Do you extend to others’ children the same kind of love and acceptance that you want for your child?
Psalm 139:14—I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works.
1 John 4:7—Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
John 13:35—By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.