Out of the mouths of babes...

As I am sure you have all experienced, there has been much “election” talk in our home the past few months. We have discussed issues, values, candidates, what-ifs, and more. And our incredibly smart 4-year old (according to his parents!) has been listening in. He knew the candidates and their running mates. He knew that we were leaning toward one candidate more than the other, but that we certainly did not hate the other. As we sat listening to the news in our living room on Election Day, the popular topic of discussion for the media was race and gender. The look on our little one’s face began to change from interest to confusion. And as a parent, you are wondering what in the world could be running through their mind! Assuming that I could read his mind, I began to explain what the media was discussing…how there are people in this country that use their voting privilege to vote for a person simply because of the color of their skin or whether they are a man or a woman.

I went into even further explanation due to the fact that he was still peering up at me with squinted eyes and a scrunched nose. I explained that there are those in other countries that do not have the privilege of voting for their leaders…that we live in a country where men and women fought and continue to fight for us to have that privilege…that it is important we take it seriously and identify what the candidates stand for and how that measures up to what we use to live by in our lives, the Bible, and not just vote for someone based on the color of their skin, their political party affiliation, or if they are a male or female.

When I finished my oration, I was still looking down into squinted eyes and a scrunched nose. At this point, I paused. Had I attempted to explain too much? Did I not explain clearly? What could he possibly be thinking?

And in my moment of silence, he dropped his head, stared down at his arm and his hand, and then hesitantly asked, “Mommy, what color am I?”

Even in only four years of being a Mommy, there are experiences that have already made me proud of our little Noah, but I am not sure there has been a prouder moment than this one. Our son, who knows more about dinosaurs and habitats that I, who can count to 100 with little help, who can read very well for his age, who loves to watch the History channel, Discovery channel, and the weather channel…did not know what color he was. For some parents that might appear to be an embarrassing moment. How could he know so much and yet not know the answer to that simple question? But for this Mommy, it was an affirmation that in our home and among those individuals that surround his life, no one has ever presented a difference in people simply because of the color of their skin.

I know that one day there will probably come a moment when someone will make that distinction to Noah, and he will be faced with the decision to see people based on the color of their skin or, as we discussed on Election Day, to see us all the way the Lord intended…as His creations.

We could probably all learn a lesson from such a “childish” question. Do we see people through our own eyes or through the eyes of Christ? I am convinced that this world would be a different place if we were to all commit to the latter.