When I was little, living out in the middle of nowhere in Mexico where my parents were missionaries, our neighbors (well not just our neighbors, pretty much everyone in town) made their living by growing cash crops of "questionable legality" and exporting them to places where they were decidedly illegal.
Being around 7 years old at the time, blissfully ignorant of all this, I thought nothing of it when the neighborhood kids had an idea for a great new game. We would take some grass and hide it on our bikes. Then we would ride around this little path and try not to get stopped by the other kids who were the "soldiers". If they stopped us, we had to give them rocks and then they would let us go. Needless to say my mom was less then amused when she found out about this game and it stopped very quickly. It didn't make any sense at the time, but in retrospect, its kind of funny. Sad, but funny.
So when I caught three of my kids packing grass into the gas tank of a toy car, I immediately cracked up laughing at the memory.
One my kiddos turned his great big eyes at me and said "Miss Anna what's so funny?"
I didn't know what to say. There was just so much behind that moment. Sad in some ways, and definitely weird, but wonderful too- to know that God has placed His light now in the middle of that darkness.
Which is a bit much to explain to a three year old, so I just went with "I'll tell you in twenty years, kid."
But as soon as I said it, I realized that in twenty years, I wouldn't have to explain. Because then God will have given this little one his own weird, sad, wonderful stories of the Light shining into darkness. Oh we don't know where or who yet- but light will always conquers darkness in the end. And this little guy, and his classmates too, get the chance to see that in amazing ways.
And in sad ways.
And in weird ways- like stuffing grass into the gas tank of a car.
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