The Wisdom of a 6 Year Old

I got one of "those" calls from Rachel the other day. Our conversation went something like this:

You may need to talk to your son.

Uh oh. What happened?

Well, Conner came up to me and said, "Mom, I've noticed that most people have 2 grandmas and 2 grandpas because their mommy has a mommy and daddy and so does their daddy." That's right Conner. "But if a brother and sister get married, their kids will only have one grandma and one grandpa."

Hahaha! What did you say?

I said, well God actually made us so that we are supposed to marry people that aren't in our family. In fact, if a brother and sister get married their babies will be very sick when they are born. Conner said, "why would God do that?" Well mister preacher man, why would God do that?

I thought for a second and said, Well, I think that this makes sure that we, like God, are always committed to new creation. People who are strangers in this generation will be family in the next.

That satisfied everyone for the moment and we hung up. But after a few moments I realized just how amazing this little tidbit really is.

This is actually more evidence of the missional nature of our God. Even within our families we are not meant to be satisfied with community as we presently experience it. And I realized how appropriate this is for churches as well. Your church family, no matter how great and seemingly complete it is, is not meant to merely grow through new birth (baptizing our children). If we are not committed to seeing new people join our family then the next generation of children will be impoverished genetically - perhaps to the point of being "sick" as Rachel pointed out.

I'd never thought about evangelism and missional connection in quite these terms but once again, my son the theologian has helped me dig a little deeper.