Suffer the little children…and keep them safe

Two incidents while driving my Honda Jazz, which I am still loving apart from a predilection for punctures, and a temperamental petrol flap which only opens when it feels like it (which could be a problem if it decided to stay shut when the empty warning light glows greedily). Other than that it's a fun car to drive and makes the weekly Aberdeen to Paisley jaunt a cruise – and the petrol flap is to be healed of its recalcitrance at the Honda correction centre this weekend.

Driving along the street I saw beneath the parked cars two small legs and a ball. I slowed to a near stop and just as in the road safety advert, the ball bounced between two cars and trickled onto the road and the wee legs followed it, by which time I was stopped. Oblivious of the stationary Jazz the ball was retrieved and the child safely on the pavement again. Not sure what you are supposed to do these days – do you get out the car and try to be nice to a young child who doesn't know you, or do you thank God (I mean it!) you saw the wee legs running and played safe with children playing dangerously?

Then last night driving back to where I stay when down at College, I turn the corner into a road with a steep hill. A parked car has its door open and a can of tomatoes drops out and starts rolling downhill. The driver standing by the car door on the mobile scuttled after it to retrieve it before this encroaching Jazz squished it! After she picked it up disdainfully and walked back to the car still on the phone, another can landed on the road and started to roll down the hill….. By which time I was slowly passing the car and saw the child in the car seat cheerfully chucking the shopping out the car door. I'm now wondering how long that game lasted!

Suffer the little children, indeed. But these two episodes made me think – about the preciousness and precociousness of children. When Jesus put a child in the midst he was doing more than using a child as the first children's address. He was pointing to that vulnerability, that combination of mischief and innocence, that imperative on our society to cherish children and make all the allowances needed to make the world safe. And when a child complains about mum ignoring her while on the mobile why shouldn't the child make sure mum gets the messages by chasing the groceries….I love it!