I Am A Teacher

 Once in a while I have the opportunity to observe or interact with those much, much younger than myself.  We have grand kids…the oldest of whom is 16.  The youngest will be 2 before long.  I also see kids at church, or in the playground at the park behind our house.  I see them in yards playing.  I also see them on television, especially during sports reporting of local high school sports.  We have great nieces and nephews, as well as friends with kids.  So, it isn’t unusual at all for us to interact in some way with some of them.

Sometimes when I’m with kids, or observing kids, I think about what may well be ahead of them in their lifetimes.  None of them know about the black dial telephone hanging on the wall.  None of them know about having to have an operator connect a long distance call for them.  None of them are cognizant of pre-Internet days or cars without air conditioning or seat belts.  None were alive when the Murrah Building was bombed in Oklahoma City or the aircraft rammed the Pentagon and the Twin Towers.  The 1967 Israeli/Egyptian war was distant history.  Viet Nam and the military draft are likewise distant and often faint history.

They weren’t around when the polio vaccine was first introduced or the first heart bypass surgery was performed.  They have no knowledge of the first heart transplant or the first heart/lung machine that was developed to keep someone alive.  And they have that blank look when one mentions the words “iron lung” to them.

What they do know is instant everything.  Phones that do a hundred thousand times more than make phone calls.  Internet everywhere.  Instant information.  Televisions that are bigger, better, and cheaper than anything that was manufactured just a few decades ago.  Cars that drive themselves.  Routine heart, lung, liver, kidney, and other organ transplants.  Vaccines for a host of illnesses.  Work from home.  School from home.

They know, or should know about the rise of China on the world scene.  They should know about Afghanistan and the plight of women and children there.  The European Union, Taiwan, the U.S. Space Force, and a woman of color in the Vice Presidency should be in their knowledge base.

But I don’t dwell on all of this when I’m interacting with or observing kids today.  I know many of them will live to see the year 2100.  Most all of them will see most of the 21^st Century.  What will they see?  What will they experience?  What will be the state of our nation, our government, the world order, the environment, space travel, and the economy?  Will someone have dropped “The Bomb” by then and will have brought to reality MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction)?  Will we have found the secret to fusion to create the energy we will need?  What plants and animals will become extinct in the next 50 to 80 years?

I don’t have answers for any of these things.  But I often persist in asking the questions.  And as a part of this thing I do, I sometimes evaluate my role in all of this.  Do I talk of the “ancient history” of the dial telephone or the iron lung to my grand kids and any others who might listen?  Do I speak of the centuries-long animosity between the Jews and Arabs and how that affects us all?  Am I contributing to the demise of some species of plants and animals?  Am I doing my part to make my part of the world a better place?  Is it even possible for me to have some kind of positive effect on the China/Taiwan situation or the plight of women and children in Afghanistan?  Can I have any positive effect on homelessness or poverty just outside my door in my community?  Am I having that positive effect now?  Or am I coasting along just waiting to check out, leaving it to others?

If you’ll notice, I’ve not said anything of a spiritual nature so far.  But I dare not leave that subject un-addressed.  Because while I am asking these questions, I also think of the spiritual lives of these kids.  What, if anything, are they being exposed to in a spiritual sense?  Are they beginning to understand, at least intellectually, that they aren’t going to live forever?  That some day they will die, and that if the Bible is correct, they will meet their God in an afterlife?  That some of them will die sooner than they ever thought?  Do they know that God loves them, and wants them to freely return that love?

Do they know and heed the Golden Rule, the First and Greatest Commandment and the One that is Like It, and the admonition to be kind to one-another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another?  Have they, or if younger, will they some day take to heart the words of John 3:16?

Will they have the courage to do the right thing, even in the face of criticism or pushback?  Will they deal honestly, speak gently, and live uprightly?

The upcoming generations have a tall order to fill.  In many ways, I’m glad I’m not part of that.  I’ve pretty much done my life and living.  Hopefully, I have some years left, and I know I have work yet to do.  I trust our generations have taught well, led by example, and are leaving a world that will serve them faithfully as they serve others in humility.

May God bless us older folks as we continue to teach the younger, and may He bless those upcoming generations as they assume their place in the creation.

 

Blessings,