Preparing for This Child

Debbie and I have friends who had a baby last week, a baby we have been anticipating for 7 months.  The new parents sent us a picture of baby Joshua, and our first impulse was to jump in the car and rush over to see him.  We wanted to hold him in our arms and touch his smooth soft brown skin.  I would get him to make eye contact with me.  I can do that; I am good with babies.

Then, we remembered the quarantine.  We will get there and hold him someday--just not now. 

In Joshua’s face you can already see a beautiful spirit incarnated in that little black body.    He is already a fully formed person, crafted in the image of the Maker of heaven and earth.  Already, his life matters.

When I finally get the chance, I will hold him and will not want to let go.  I will want to continue to hold him even as he grows into a toddler and then into a school boy.  I will want to hold on even more tightly as he becomes a teenager and then a young black man in America.  I will want to hold him and never let him go to make sure that he gets every opportunity he deserves and grows old enough to complain of stiff knees and kids walking on his lawn on their way home from school.

I know I cannot do that.  At some point he will go out on his own and face what awaits him.  I hope it is a gentler, kinder, fairer, more just and accepting nation, where he will be judged by the content of his character instead of the color of his skin, as Dr. King put it.  

Change has become personal for me in this child.  He will grow up quickly, and I have work to do to make this place in this world ready for him.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.  If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.  Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!” (Matt. 18:1-7)

Everyday children of color are being born in our nation.  We need to get busy preparing this land for them as they grow and go out into our the world we are everyday building, for better or for worse.

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister—American Baptist Churches of New York State