Looking Into The Future

Take a look at the future.

Be grateful for all the bright, inquisitive, wonder-appreciating
faces around you.  The ones Jesus called to his side a long
time ago and held up as models for the rest of us.  The ones that
play on your street, in better times crowd malls and parks, attend
your church, even get on your nerves when you’re tired or grumpy.

We are accountable to them and responsible for them.  Not only
the ones described above, but also the bright, inquisitive,
wonder-appreciating ones everywhere.  Children need a
chance.  Not only members of my family but the Human Family.
Not only the ones who attend my neighborhood school, but
also the ones who can’t go to school.  The average as well as
the advantaged.  All children are “Ours” in a universal sense
that is lost on adults who segregate, stereotype, or stygmatize
on the basis of heritage, appearance, gender or family income.

Oddsmakers are saying we’re leaving a mess they can clean up.
They deserve better.
They deserve a chance to be children now and a realistic hope
for tomorrow.  We owe these Shining Spirits our love, our
labor, and our last ounce of determination to bless them into
the decades ahead.  Every one of them.

Take a look at the future.
Take a look at the One who is holding
them in his lap.