The Outsider (Part 2)

My children still ask, with a twinkle in their eyes, why I didn’t let them watch “The Smurfs”. “The Smurfs” was a cartoon about characters with blue skin and Smufing language that drove me crazy. I just explained to them that I was trying to keep them from being polluted by the world. In retrospect I may have overdone it a bit.

As a mother I wanted to safeguard my children. I saw their innocence as something beautiful that I wanted to preserve and protect. In the book of James a pure and undefiled religion involves keeping yourself unspotted from the world. I wanted to do everything I could to keep my children unstained by the world around them. I was zealous in my refusal to let the world corrupt them, even if that meant not allowing them to watch “The Smurfs”!

We lived in a respectable neighborhood, so when Jessica’s family moved in, it caused a ripple in our placid atmosphere. Jessica was an outsider but desperately wanted to belong. She possessed something that none of the other children had, a working knowledge of “power words”. She happily shared that knowledge with all the other children hoping it would secure a place for her in their society. The children were excited about the new addition to their vocabulary! Their parents, however, were not.

These parents, like me, wanted to keep their children unstained from the world. They decided that Jessica would not be allowed to play with their children. And to be sure that their children weren’t corrupted by Jessica, no child allowed to play with her would be allowed to play with their children. I understood their vigilance; however, I could not stop thinking about how this would effect Jessica.

I invited Jessica into my home to talk with her. I asked her what she thought Jesus would say to her. She didn’t hesitate. She told me that Jesus would tell her to leave the good children alone. Although I didn’t allow my children to watch “The Smurfs” as long as Jessica lived in our neighborhood, she was welcomed in my home.

Children’s services came one day to ask about her. By then Jessica was eating almost all her meals at my house. I made the comment that she ate as if she was starving. At this the social worker put her pen down, looked me directly in the eyes, and said, “She is starving.” But she was not only starving for food. I gave her an interactive children’s Bible. Before two weeks were up she had completed every page. Pure and undefiled religion is more than just being unspotted by the world. It also involves looking out after bereaved and desolate children in their distress.