What About the Children?

I have often found great encouragement from Jesus' words in Luke 12 - "If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you...don't be concerned about what to eat and what to drink...your Father already knows your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and He will give you everything you need" (v28-31 NLT).

There have been a number of times when things have been very tight financially, when we didn't know how we were going to make it through. Whether it was a number of bills stacking up, rent coming due, car problems, medical situations, car problems, the cost of living in general or a problem with the car (we have some interesting car stories). There were some scary times but I'm so thankful to God because every time, every time He provided exactly what was needed in the moment. I can attest to the powerful promise that Jesus gives in Luke 12.

But, there has been a thought that sits in the back of my mind like a small stone in my shoe or a single grain of sand in my eye - just irritating and uncomfortable. After working with a couple of aid agencies over the last few years and raising money to help the poorest of the poor this thought has only grown...what about the children? We live in a world where hundreds of millions of people, many of them children, go to bed hungry every single night. Does God not care for them as much as He cares for me? Does God care about flowers more than He cares about them?

Living in Australia we have everything we need...more than that, we not only have everything we need but we have so much more that could never be considered necessities. We are number 2 on the United Nations Human Development Index and have been for a number of years, behind Norway and in front of about 190 other countries. Now life cannot be measured in numbers, even so number 2 is still pretty darn good. I don't remember exactly what I did to earn my spot in this country, but it must have been amazing. Compare that to places like Rwanda or East Timor (much further down the UNHDI list) where malnutrition is at extreme levels in about 50% of children in certain areas. Kids eat roots the find in the ground, frogs, bugs and even tree bark. Boy, they must have done something wrong somewhere along the line to end up there. If that happened in Australia there would be an outcry. The government would send in numerous departments or church based charities or at the very least, Kochie. That should be the response (well, probably not Kochie), there should be an outcry because every child should have enough to eat. That much we can all agree on, can't we? It is not right for kids to go hungry, whoever they are, wherever they are.

That's the real world though, which causes me a problem. It is in this issue where my theology does not match my reality. This type of scenario can cause you to question your reality, or God, or both. After avoiding that confronting situation for a long time God brought me back to Luke 12:31...

"Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and He will give you everything you need".

I love the second part of that verse and have agreed with the first. I have read through this verse in a number of different translations and each one points to the imperative of first, God's kingdom is sought after and second, He gives what is needed. The question remains then, are the hundreds of millions of people going to bed hungry every night not seeking God's kingdom above all else? Is that why they don't have enough to eat? Am I seeking God's kingdom above all else, is that why I have everything I need? Is that true for my next door neighbour? It doesn't take long to figure out that this logical thought process does not actually make sense. Then it struck me, God is the God of the whole world, not just me. I have been thinking about this verse in a personal way, reading it as an individual through a selfish mindset. The 'you' in the second part of the verse is a plural you. This is not a promise to just me, but to you and everyone. So why do we not have everything we need? Well, we actually do. But the reason that some are not getting access to what they need is that the first part of the verse is not happening. We are not seeking God's kingdom above all else. I am not saying that nobody is doing anything, that is simply not true. In 1970 there were 60,000 children under the age of 5 dying every day from hunger and curable diseases, today that figure is closer to 19,000. Still too many to even contemplate and truly understand, but we are getting somewhere and making a huge difference because there are those who are seeking God's kingdom above all else. We are all called to do that. We all need to seek God's kingdom first and then He will give us (all 7.3 billion of us) everything we need. It is because we are not doing that we find ourselves in the situation. We are to blame for this. Poverty is a man made issue. We created it. To fix it, we need to seek the kingdom of God above everything else. But what is the kingdom of God? Well, that is too much to try and figure out here, but in short it is Jesus...