19 Sep Teach Your Children To See

How will you teach your children to see?

We spilled out onto the beach overflowing with umbrellas, buckets, chairs, and all the detritus that comes along with a family of five setting up camp in the sand.

And my girl, eyes wide seeing the curve of broken bits deposited haphazardly on the shoreline, is racing toward the water, catching up the pink pirate bucket in her hands.

My girl, she loves to collect things.

And when she is finished, her bucket groaning with the weight of it, she is talking circles around me about jewelry making, collections, and the beautiful broken bits of calcium  carved up by the wind and the waves.

It is her gift to see beauty in the broken. 

And how, how do we – as mothers and Christ-followers – teach our children to see the beautiful, broken bits of the people around us and how they point us to the cross?

Because, really, that’s what we are, carved by the wind and the waves, fragmented souls whose true beauty comes from redemption in Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

All of us, the richest and poorest, the white, the black, the brown – all of us bearing the image of the One who died and rose again.

Who do you see?

We were grocery shopping in the Safeway parking lot when we saw her, a young woman in colorful clothing, accompanied by a young boy. She was begging, holding a sign asking for help. She was an oddity in our suburban shopping center, tucked placidly in the trees and flush with affluence.

There were red flags when I saw her. She exhibited many of the characteristics of a human trafficking victim. Enough so that when I saw her, I circled around to give some snacks, and try, in my muddled way to help. She denied that she was in danger. I’m not sure I helped. I drove away, troubled by the situation, and not sure what to do next.

When we got home, I rallied my community, got some good advice and got on the phone to local law enforcement and nearby rescue organizations. I spent about an hour on the phone in total.

My girl, she is listening to all of it with wide eyes.

Afterwards, she said, “Mom, why are you spending so much time on the phone talking about her. Why do you care so much?

These are our moments.

This is when the gospel shines through and I can share with my girl about why we care about the woman on the corner. This is when I teach my boys why we see the homeless man who lives on the hill by the exit ramp as so much more than the sum of his circumstances. We check in with the woman who stands between the Costco and Home Depot to see if she needs groceries when we run to Wegmans. And we rejoice with her when she tells us she got a job at Home Depot and we haven’t seen her since. But there is a new girl in her spot, and so it begins again.

Mommas – our children see when we see.

When we look at the people around us, when we see those on the margins through the lens of Christ, when we commune with them – they see.

How will you teach your children to see this week? 

~M.

(Editor’s note: If you aren’t sure, here are some common signs of human trafficking. In our case, she seemed to be a part of a common begging scam in which she was being monitored. We gave food and a few dollars and asked if she was safe. She said yes, but there were some signs that maybe that wasn’t the case. I followed up with law enforcement and local rescue organizations but unfortunately, we never saw her again.)