This small piece is given to 3 headings. ”Where” where we are today and our present condition. “Why” why have we arrived at this place. “What” can we do about it?
Innocence is a condition that is slowly being lost from our world, it is becoming increasingly rare and sadly like many graces that are falling by the wayside in our “ civilised world” it’s demise is going largely unnoticed.
But what do I mean by innocence, I asked one of my children the same question and he said in perfect simplicity like only a child can. “Innocence is what we have before we know to much”
Innocence speaks of a clean heart that hasn’t been stained or corrupted by the surrounding environment, it speaks of something that most people long for and that is to feel the freedom we knew as a child, without the constant pressure of worry and the nagging voice of guilt that so easily captures us and robs us of our joy.
Thankfully innocence can still be seen in the very young, but even this special age is retreating at an alarming rate and it seems to me as I look around, that we don’t really seem that bothered at it’s loss. The young fertile innocence of our children has become a hunting ground for every kind of evil, and we watch in a helpless bystander sort of way as the sacrifice continues.
Innocence is mocked and called naïve, in our schools is it not cool to be an innocent, its not cool to be a virgin, its not cool to work hard and show respect is it that we become so corrupt as a people that we cannot stand it.
Could it be that against the fragile purity of innocence our own ruined nature stands out, and could it be if we wipe out that bright reference point we can remain comfortable in our fallen state.
The breaking down of innocence is like cutting the anchor line that holds our society stable, once cut we are set to drift in a wilderness, seeking more extremities as we try to redefine who we are, and in our exploration we look for new pleasures, new heroes, and new Gods.
Is it not time that we drew a halt to the sale of innocence, and ceased the hunting of the pure hearted.
To understand how we have arrived at where we are now, we must first accept that responsibility really does lie with us; we cannot ignore the extinction of the graces that made us any longer. Because if we are not willing to admit and take responsibility for our world and not always expect some one else to sort it out we will never see the changes that we long for. It is a fact of life that around us everyday poverty, hunger, violence, neglect, hatred press into our lives and demand our total attention, but these are only products of a deeper truth and that is we have lost individually and globally the image of who we are created to be. As the understanding of who we are is removed so is our hope, our future and vision. The wholesale embrace of a unproven scientific theory in regards to our origins has made us mere products of chance and like the flawed theory itself it has flawed our future.
We have become in our minds an orphaned people with no Father in a world that has had destiny removed; we have truly become a lost people.
But the cycle once started continues, one generation fails to teach the next who they are, simply because they themselves have lost the picture. Mums and Dads do the best they can to bring up their children based on their own morality and values that they themselves have pieced together. The result being is that the children along with these values also inherit their parent’s fears and weakness. They are taught by example, and the teaching is not whom they truly are but only what their elders have seen through the limit of their own experience, on one hand they have a better education than ever and the tools to practice it, but there is something missing.
Innocence has disappeared and no one noticed. With every impassioned embrace on television, with every callous word and blood soaked film the heart gradually hardens and innocence vanishes.
The problem we face though that once innocence is lost there is no way back, corruption is a one-way door that will not swing the other way. Once we have fallen we are fallen aren’t we, after all cannot become new can we?
The answer is yes we can. What if I said to you that innocence could be regained; what if I said that there is a hope for the broken hearted.
Through Jesus Christ our sins can be forgiven and our hearts and minds can be made clean once more so that again we can know the innocence of childhood, and never again feel the stain of this worlds corruption.
Jesus when asked who is greatest he said this.
Mat 18:3 Truly I say to you, unless you are converted
and become as little
children, you shall not enter
into the
Mat 18:4 Therefore whoever shall humble himself like
this little child, this
One
is the greater in the
Jesus
is stating that innocence is one of the highest virtues in his Kingdom,
and if this is what you
want, through him is the only way. You will have to
start again as a little
child.
Nicodemus
thought this absurd at first hearing and said “ how is
it possible to
re-enter the womb and be born
again”. He was right of coarse because Jesus
was talking about the
spirit of a man. The spirit is the heart of man and it is
the eternal part of you
and me. He is saying that through him, we can become
as new without the
stain of sin that breaks down the God connection,
through him as little
children we can once again get back what was lost?
Unfortunately
this is where most people, stop, they know what they need but
for them the cost is too
high. The thought of having to give up their sin is to
much, and so they retreat
back to the shadows not wanting to be exposed by
the light of innocence.
In Jesus’ day their were people like this, and although
they could see the
working of miracles and hear the truth they still turned
away.
The
return to innocence is a real offer it is what Christianity is about, and no
one is excluded. How’s
your heart?