"Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world, red and yellow back and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." This particular song is a favorite of our 7 year old daughter's. She sings it in the car. She sings it while playing with her toys. It is a song we hear a lot around the Wallace house. It is a very heartwarming sound to hear your little child singing, with such confidence, that her Jesus loves ALL the children of the world. Sadly, as an adult, I have witnessed firsthand, that adults do not seem to believe this is true. The innocence of childhood left them long ago as they grew into their rather jaded existence known as adulthood. I do realize that as we get older that there are things that we learn are not real...tooth fairy, Easter bunny, sand man, Santa Clause. These are all things that our parents made magical for their children and we in turn, carried on the tradition. I never felt it was a betrayal or that my parents lied to me...it was just a very sweet magical time. The beauty of childhood is that young ones have not seen enough of the world yet to be prejudiced against others. They only see color as shades of crayons. They do not look at others less fortunate as "poor," they merely see a new playmate. One of my favorite memories of my oldest daughter as a child was when we were shopping one day and Ryan came into contact with a special needs child in a wheelchair and she walked directly up to her and kissed her hand and said hi. The mother of the child broke into this ear to ear smile and said "Most little kids are afraid and just stare." It was at that very moment that God said to me "Julia, you are doing your job and doing it well." Recently, someone I love very dearly, was crushed when her special needs son, was targeted by other parents...someone they felt their daughter should have "limited exposure to." Any parent I know that has a child and loves that child, would find this to be a crushing blow. Christian parents that feel that their child should not be around a child that has special needs? Why? Because their child may mimic that special needs child? What a missed opportunity for those parents! By their child mimicking that special needs child, couldn't they see that their own child was embracing his differences? Their child was breaking into the often sealed world of this beautifully autistic child. The autistic child was given a chance to see that he would not be shunned. He could become part of the same world that other children were accepted into without question. After consoling this mother of the special needs child, I began to pray in earnest: "Lord, please do not allow this sweet child, that loves and accepts this little boy without hesitation...to grow up and mimic her parents that so readily pick and choose who is good enough or normal enough for their child to befriend. Help her to keep that childlike innocence that loves ALL the little children...just as YOU did." Jesus said "Let the little children come unto me." He did not distinguish between normal or special needs....He just wanted them to come to Him. ALL of them!
