What do our children need of us really, as adults, as parents, and as the community of faith called the church? I found myself asking that question when the newborn infants of this congregation were brought before us and both the parents and our Sunday school teachers were gathered here at the front. The children looked so tiny — none of them able to walk or feed themselves or do hardly anything. If they are to become fully functioning human beings, obviously many things are going to have to be done for them and with them. What are they? I am sure there are many answers that could be given to such a question, but let me sum up my own thinking on the subject in two words; namely, acceptance and challenge.

What do I mean by these? Well, first of all, by the use of the word acceptance, I am …