last week was a reminder for me that the world we live in is not safe. several school districts and a county courthouse in our area had to be evacuated because of a string of bomb threats one particular day. and all you have to do is watch the news for 2 minutes to realize this sort of thing happens all the time these days, all over our country. and worse. sometimes the threats are not realized until they have already been carried out and become reality. and it doesn't just happen in schools. many public areas have seen ridiculous acts of violence carried out on innocent victims. and even more sobering are the statistics on domestic violence in our country. people being abused and even killed by their own family and close friends.
i know, i know, i'm just a little ray of sunshine today. well, i'm not trying to depress anybody, just to make us think a bit. i think many of us who send our children to public schools, or out into public at all, do so with the disillusioned belief that they are safe. we often do this with the subconscious mentality that "that stuff doesn't happen here." well guess what? that stuff happens everywhere.
and i for one am willing to admit that i have scoped out the security measures at my child's school and have found them lacking. i mean, there are no armed guards or metal detectors at each and every exit. there is no barbed wire fence. no 20 foot steel wall. i have driven by and seen children sitting like easy targets right next to windows in their classrooms. and no offense, but the secretaries in the front offices of most of these schools don't exactly look like formidable security. just sayin'.
so what am i saying? what i'm saying is: our kids are not safe!!!! the fact is, this world is not a safe place to be. since that fateful decision to eat the wrong apple in the garden, humans have been living in a broken and fallen world. adam and eve could not even keep their children safe from each other. cain killed abel violently just because he was jealous. and they didn't even attend public school.
even if security measures were up to par and our children went to school in a prison, that school might not withstand an F5 tornado. even if we choose to homeschool, we cannot protect our children from cancer or disease. even if we put them in a bubble, we cannot protect them from their own sinful hearts.
so what hope do we have? simply Jesus. our kids are not safe, but they are loved!!! they are not immune to the evil and sickness in this world, but they do have a Heavenly Father who wants to be with them in it. we can't protect them from everything, but we can send them out into the world knowing they are watched over by a God who is Sovereign. and we need to understand that He may or may not choose to protect them from evil, from sickness, from violence, from bullying, from threats, from nature, or from accidents. when bad things do happen it does not mean he closed his eyes or fell off his throne. He has a plan. and He loves our children more than we ever could.
so i will send my kids out into the world. i will let them go to their first dance. (if i personally know a chaperone). i will let them go on dates (at a reasonable age). i will let them get a drivers license (after much practice and scrutiny and probably not as early as they would like). i will let them participate in sports. i will let them hang out with friends. and for now, i choose to send them to public school. but its not because I trust that they are safe. its because i trust that they are loved! they are loved by a Good King. and we just happen to be lucky enough to have teachers who love them too.
"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver; 'Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'"
- C.S. Lewis - The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
