Reflections of a Sister Christian:
Childhood and the Age of Promise
By Samantha Courtney
A new school year has begun, the rain has finally returned, and the approach of Fall feels like a whispered promise in the air. Even now I feel a pang of longing for the school days of my childhood. The smell of hand-sharpening a fresh number two pencil at the metal sharpener attached to the side of the teacher's desk. The cracking sound of the binding on a brand-new marble notebook opened for the first time. Not a single page yet folded or torn. Standing tall for the Pledge of Allegiance, hand on heart, eyes trained on the flag, reciting one nation under God.
The years carry on, styles change and come back around, but one particular truth remains: childhood is the age of promise. What do you want to be when you grow up? Who you might marry, 2.5 children perhaps, a picket fence, airplanes, spaceships, lions, tigers, and bears oh my! The horizon is endless and the future a vast open sky. As a child none of that terrified me. It all felt so exciting! One could argue that it is simply the naivete of children to live so much in the present without fear of the future. But as a child I knew that, like our great nation, I too was “under God.” My whole heart believed without falter that Jesus was for me and went before me. I was a protected and beloved little sister Christian.
If childhood is the age of promise then certainly adulthood is the promise of age. Time feels like it rushes past too quickly doesn’t it? My children were toddlers yesterday and today are grumpy teenagers. To be honest, I’m a bit grumpier too. Before long they will be off to college and onto growing families of their own. My hair thins and grays more each year and the horizon and sky seems to gray along with it. Excitement for the future has been traded for worry, trepidation, anxiety, and fear.
What changes for us? Certainly not God. Hebrews 13:8 reminds, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." It must only then be I who have changed and allowed the world to be my change maker. When I have wandered and not stood under God with my eyes trained on him, those are the times I have feared the future most. It is not the naivete of children but rather the unadulterated attention and admiration they have for life which calls them to live how we are called to live as Christians: without fear and filled instead with joy and peace.
In Jeremiah 29:11 we read, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This verse is part of a letter written by Jeremiah to the exiled elders of Jerusalem. Not a letter for the children of Jerusalem alone but rather for the surviving elders! Regardless of our age, God promises us hope and a future. What will it look like? Only our Lord knows the plans he has to prosper us at every stage of our lives. Fear only serves to pull our eyes away from the blessings he provides every day.
So, what will you be when you grow up my friends? I know what I want to continue to be…a joyful little sister Christian.
