Molehill Armageddon
James Cathcart
January 09, 2017
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Matthew 21:15-16
“When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?”
As I child I got molehills all wrong. I knew moles made them, but I got the impression that the little mounds of earth were where they actually lived, not just a byproduct of their digging. So I was distraught when once a group of my peers began gleefully kicking molehills with abandon. My heart went out to my furry friends facing this wanton, senseless, destruction. ‘Those are molehills’ I cried, ‘That’s a mole’s house!’ My heartless and/or better informed playmates shrugged and resumed kicking the molehills to smithereens.
I later found out that moles don’t live in molehills but I’m glad I was that wee boy, overcome with grief and wanting somehow to intervene, unable to keep my emotional response to myself. As I get older I have got much better at filtering my responses and suppressing that gut reaction.
Sadly this means I have become more numb to disaster, both ecological and humanitarian. When real areas of biodiversity are crushed out of existence I shrug, perhaps share a newspaper editorial, and move on. When I see the horror of bombarded cities I am saddened but I often let the grief subside inside. I feel detached, it’s happening somewhere else.
The child watching trainers like his own kick repeatedly into the earth was fully engaged and couldn’t help but respond. Children have a way of not holding back, like the kids that couldn’t stop themselves running and shouting through the Temple in Matthew 21. We need to remember to let ourselves feel emotion and not always keep tragedy at arm’s length.
Dear God,
Help us keep the sensitivity of childhood
the eyes ready to cry
and the hearts ready to burst
because sometimes we must cry
and sometimes our hearts will break.
Amen.
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