Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with the Mitchell family. Kemper, my 2.5 year old son, got so many things that he needed and so many great toys to enjoy. He has played with them nonstop since Saturday afternoon. He was given a Fisher Price Little People Zoo (with an elephant and a monkey), a set of vehicles from the Pixar movie, Cars (he loves Tow-Mater), and a Daniel Tiger Trolley car with songs and sounds (and a set of Daniel Tiger figures). Suggesting these toys in a list of things to the family, was definitely a win.
On Monday morning as I was getting ready for work I could hear Kemper in the living room, talking quietly to his toys, "Where did you go, oh there you are." "No, no, you go here." I heard the clacking of plastic toys banging together, and the soft, "ding-ding" of Daniel's Trolley. When I went into the living room to see what he was up to, I found every character from Daniel Tiger, several Little People, Tow-Mater, and Lightening McQueen all crammed into Trolley. I had a flashback from my study abroad days of riding "the tube" in London during rush hour.
The first thought I had was, wow, if Pixar and PBS characters from different universes can dwell together, why can't we? As an adult, when I play with him, I find myself wanting to keep all of the characters and parts separated. I want the Little People with the zoo animals, and the Daniel Tiger toys with the trolley, and all of the Cars characters lined in a row. They don't go together. When is it that we lose that sense of imagination? When do we begin to separate people into categories and labels? Such divisiveness must be learned....because in a small child it does not exist. What is it that Christ called us to do, have the faith of a child?
How do we move ourselves beyond fear, hatred, ignorance--to a place of understanding and harmony? There is such separation around politics, religion, the color of a person's skin. There is such pain and misery in our world that goes overlooked--how can we not see our brothers and sisters in Syria? How do we regain our childlike faithfulness in Jesus' command to love our neighbor as ourselves? I believe we have to intentionally place ourselves and our interests in places that matter. We must invest our time into engaging people who are different than ourselves. Simply out of respect. Simply for understanding. Simply out of love.
God's kingdom is surely more like Kemper's trolley car than the world in which we live. Perhaps, this Christmas, this is the gift I will pray for...more trolleys.
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