Over the entrance to Holy Cross School in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), South Africa are three words in isiXhosa, the language most of our students speak at home. They are “Bavumeleni Abantwana Beze.” They are the words of Jesus from Mark 10:14: “Let the children come.”
The complete story is even more revealing, although “Let the children come” sums it up nicely.
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of this passage, I think, for how we live our lives. The moral consequences of what we teach children are enormous. In fact, they are nothing less than the kingdom of God. Let us not overlook that the kingdom belongs to the children and not to us. That is to whom God has given it. We do well to remember that our entrance to it has to do with whether they give it to us, whether we are open to receiving it from them. It is not the other way around.
Holy Cross School exists not nearly so much for us to teach our students about God but for us to learn about God’s love from them. It is not what we do for them. It is what we get from them.
Love Must Act exists for that principle. We enter the kingdom of God, if at all, not for the children but by them. Let the children come for the kingdom already belongs to them. I have found them incredibly generous in sharing it. Bavumeleni Abantwana Beze. I’m pretty sure it’s the language Jesus speaks at home, too.
Agape,
+Stacy
Bishop Stacy Sauls
Founder and President
Love Must Act