A Haiku - Children
Today's children grow up too fast.
Who stole it away?
Childhood innocence has gone.
No requiem sounds.
Parents at work and media intrudes as children are led to believe TV, film, and internet depictions of a false morality.
I saw a child angel last Sunday in the form of small, pigtailed girl in her Sunday best. A modern Heidi of film and literary fame, a Shirley Temple resurrected, walking beside a devout mother on their way from a New England church. She was all of four years old, and her smile outshone the sun. She was not pretending. She was who she really was.
May a loving God protect her from the falsehoods she must encounter as she grows to womanhood. May her sweet smile of purity not fade in her long lifetime of challenges to her virtue and pursuit of truth.
Oh, how sad it is that we have somehow fashioned a world of Potemkin villages where what is presented as real can so often consist only of falsehoods, false standards that collapse with the first strong breeze.
I pray for that angel's mother who so neatly dressed her, washed her cherub-like face, and braided her hair for their trip to God's holy house and an early fitting for the armor she will need to remain faithful and true.
Who will be her shepherds to see her safely pastured in green pastures? Will it be her mother, a teacher, a neighbor, a friend, a mentor, a partner worthy of that child's pure smile?
Will it be you?
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© 2014 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.