I’ve been reading a poem and pondering. The poem is called “Little Girls in Church” by Kathleen Norris.* She had observed two girls, one in a Presbyterian church, one in an Orthodox church. Norris writes:

I worry for the girls
I once had braids,
and wore lace that made me suffer.
I had not yet done the things
that would need forgiving.

Church was for singing, so I sang.
I received a Bible, stars
for all the verses;
I turned and ran.
. . . . . . . . . .

Dear girls, my friends,
may you find great love
within you, starlike
and wide, as wide as grass
solemn as the moon.
I will pray for you, if I can.

I ponder about the 200 kids who were once in the church I attended in the 1950s. The church is closed now. What happened to them? What happened to the young people I confirmed over my years in ministry? Are they still believers?

Before launching on a tirade about this modern age, I reflect on the Old Testament. In the Book of Judges, every forty years the people God saved forget about God and do what is evil. In other words, faithfulness lasts about a generation and then people wander away. What happens to them?

Why do people fall away from God? I don’t know. I do know some are like are Kathleen Norris who ran away, but returned. Her books Dakota, The Cloister Walk, and Amazing Grace are spiritual masterpieces.

To all the children I once knew, I will pray for you, if I can.

Read Psalm 34:11 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

Little Girls in Church, pp. 25-26