Encore Post: In the ancient world, most children died before their 18th birthday. In fact, childhood death was common until the twentieth century. Every couple could expect to bury at least one child during their lifetime. That is why the childhood prayer was taught to generations of young people: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. If I should live another day, I pray the Lord to guide my way.”
Children and young people, therefore, were kept at an emotional distance and paid little attention. Besides, children were disruptive, especially when a rabbi was trying to teach. They do not understand abstract thought and so would look for other ways to entertain themselves and get attention. They were expected to behave, to be just like the adults with them. So, they were pushed aside so that adults could get on with “important” business. Keep them out of sight and out of mind.
Jesus made two points by bringing a child before them. First, all people are important to God, no matter how small. He loves them, cares for them. In fact, Jesus came to die for them, too. They are not the future of the church — they are the church.
Second, children trust adults to take care of them, live humbly, and assume their love. In fact, they are better Christians than adults! To be Christians, after all, means to trust God to take care of us, to deny ourselves, knowing we are cared for and dedicate our lives to the service of others. This comes naturally to them. They are not bothered when they cannot understand something adults or God tell them. They accept the truth, rely on it and build on it because they trust their parents, their teachers and God. They may not know something, but they know someone. So, ironically, if we want to grow in faith, we need to become like them and trust the God who made us, loves us, died for us, cares for us and will bring us home one day to be with him forever.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT point you made that children are not the *tomorrow* church but they are the *today* church!
Thanks, Tom! And, similarly, you (and me!) are not yesterday’s church either!
As a child of about 6, I found that prayer to be quite disturbing, with its talk of dying in my sleep and my soul, whatever that ghost-sounding thing was, being taken. Instead of its intended comfort, it made me a bit fearful of sleeping. Perhaps if the teaching of that prayer has been accompanied by good catechesis regarding death, the nature of the soul, and the resurrection and eternal life in Christ, I might have found the prayer more comforting. But my parents were really not equipped for that.
In our age, in our nation at least, children do not face death as frequently as centuries prior. For Lutherans I suspect this prayer was not as common as the Luther evening prayer. My folks were generic Protestant, so that was where I learned it.
I learned it in an LCMS Lutheran household. I didn’t encounter Luther’s Evening Prayer till many years later.