"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong." The children will sing their hearts out, joining in this beloved song. But stand in the midst of a bunch of young children and ask, "Who here is weak?" You'll be barraged with denials, protests, and muscle flexings. The bravado of children is difficult to exaggerate.

An image endures for me. Once a group of young boys from an inner city congregation was spending the weekend in my rural parish, as an aspect of our partnership. As we walked along the canal towpath, each boy boasted more boldly of just what he would do should a bear or mountain lion appear from the woods. (Whether or not they knew that neither lion nor bear had been seen within many miles of there for…