Teaching Children Peace – Sunday, November 27, 1983
Recently a mother taught her daughter about the world, spinning a small globe and pointing to the countries and continents, talking about the peoples and the geographies of our planet.
As the little girl looked at the sphere of the earth, the question occurred to her that is so often asked by children: “If the world is round like a ball, why don’t we falloff?”
So, the mother took the opportunity to explain gravity and a universe in which everything moves, one thing circling another, all things circling a center which itself moves.
The little girl listened intently and then said with some despair, “With everything pushed and pulled together that way, it’s no wonder the world is in such a mess.”
There is no denying a child’s wisdom. Indeed, we do live in a frequently troubled world, a world in which we have only to pick up a newspaper or turn on the evening news to learn of people making war against people, of conflict and tragedy and despair.
But the paradox of our world is that among such disorder and confusion, there is—like the universe itself—order and hope. Regardless of the trouble, there is peace. And it’s important that our children and we ourselves understand the physical symbol of hope that exists in the world, that there is a center about which our lives revolve, a constant, unchanging unrelenting force that draws us to itself and stands against chaos. In the physical world that force is gravity. In the spiritual world it is God.
Too frequently, life can appear to be a ball upon which it is impossible for us to balance rather than a world which holds us to itself and provides the balance and order we are seeking. Likewise, God’s love is not difficult to find; indeed, the only way to avoid it is to deny it. Like gravity, the love of God and the controlling power of its influence is inevitable, unless we rebel against it. And like gravity, the love of God is universal, a blessing available to all,
As we teach our children about the world, and as we ourselves learn about it, let us be ever mindful that while troubles of the moment may be serious and real, they are not the defining reality. Let’s remember while we struggle to resolve conflict that there is help and hope in the deep and constant attraction of God, in the deep gravity of His peace and love.
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November 27, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,832