Yet another early morning breakfast question... "Does Jesus love soldiers?"
I was a little stunned (again) at the randomness of this question since nothing that morning had been remotely related to soldiers. Maybe there was something on the morning news he saw that my mind missed? Or perhaps his mind was going back to the Nightly News the evening before. To give a little context, even before my sons were born, I held the conviction that guns were not going to be toys in our home for a very long time if ever. I understand it's in male nature to conquer and protect, but I don't think pretending with guns should be part of little boys' lives. Personal preference, that's all. So far, we've been quite successful at this. The only exposure my boys have had to guns and killing is pretty much the news which is always reporting on situations involving soldiers, weapons, police, murder, etc. And I am perfectly ok with that. I don't want my sons to be ignorant of these things -- but I do want them to learn about them with a proper perspective. So far so good. (And I'll take a moment to thank my older sister for asking her sons not to gun-play around my boys during the holidays...it really meant a lot to me that she respected my preference even though it is different from hers!)
So back to the question, "Does Jesus love soldiers?" What a question from a 3 year old! It immediately showed me that perhaps he was doubting that Jesus loves soldiers, but why? Ah, maybe because he understands that soldiers kill people and killing is wrong. God is the one who is gives and takes life. I asked him, "Do you think that Jesus might not love soldiers because they kill people?" He nodded his head yes. How precious to see such an innocent thought process. The answer was not very easy to explain, and even made me have a basic realization about soldiers. I began with explaining that yes, Jesus does love soldiers. Jesus loves all people and wants them to love Him. I told Judah that being a soldier is a job just like being a doctor, which he seemed to understand. Matt explained to him that many soldiers don't even use their guns, that they help rescue people and provide for their needs. I jumped in to tell Judah that a long, long time ago, God had his very own army...men were soldiers for God! He smiled really big! But then it hit me...wait a second. God had an army, and He commanded that army numerous times to conquer other peoples and not leave one human being alive in various cities. That's killing. And God punished His army if they did NOT obey His command to kill everyone they conquered. Wow. Matt piped up to say that was a concept we didn't need to start teaching yet -- and it's a concept I'm not sure we can fully understand as humans!
Last night, Judah all of the sudden told me that if we don't read our Bible and pray, we will start shrinking. I'm sure it came from Sunday school, but he was not able to explain it in different terms. Still not certain what exactly he means! :-)
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