BOUNDLESS CURIOSITY

Children, obey your parents in everything, because this pleases the Lord.

Colossians 3:20 (CEB)

It’s amazing what one can read into a photo.

I took the two photos shown here in June of 2016 on one of the beaches on Kelley’s Island during one of our annual week-long vacations there.

By their dress, I assumed the people to be Amish or Mennonite. Seeing them in this environment was slightly jarring at first. They seemed so out of place, as if someone plopped them in the middle of this out of the way setting just to see how others would react upon seeing them.

(Of course, I should talk! I’ve often wondered whether people think the same about me when I show up at places where no one expects a person of color to be.)

I was far enough away from them so as to be discreet – thank goodness for my zoom lens – and I was also careful to avoid getting close-ups of faces in case I decided someday to use it on some social media site, as I am doing now. Amish believe that photos are graven images and a violation of God’s commandment.

Since that day I have on occasion pulled the photos out and relived that afternoon in my imagination. The picture at the top of this post captivated me so that I had it printed and framed, and it now hangs in the hallway leading into our living room. One of my many daily trips past it triggered my motivation to write about it today.

There were actually two mothers and their children. I observed the two families for a while before actually snapping the photos, and for the longest time, my mind was caught up in wondering what sorts of conversations were taking place between the mothers and their children.

What sorts of questions were going on in the children’s curious little heads?

Was this their first time near a large body of water like Lake Erie?

Would they protest going back home when their vacation time came to an end?

From time to time, I recall my childhood days at summer camp and how I nearly cried every year when it came time to go back home.

As I said earlier, I assumed them to be Amish or Mennonite. So, taking a stereotypical leap, I figured that maybe the mothers were taking advantage of their children’s captive attention to instruct them in their faith – perhaps making a connection for them between God and creation. I could imagine them reciting the Colossians verse that I quoted at the top of the page.

If they had been Jewish, I could picture these moms teaching them the Shema, the essential commandment in Judaism, and God’s word to the Israelites:

You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20

The photos make me think, with a certain measure of sadness, about how precious little time we spend teaching our children about faith. Even the most caring, supportive, and loving parents spend more time instructing their youngsters in other pursuits – education, sports, music – than in faith. All those other things are good, but we tend to give them a much higher priority, while relegating faith to the back burner.

In the minds of many parents, faith formation is the church’s job. But how much easier would that job be if parents did little things like pray with their children at mealtimes, or read a Bible story to them at bedtime?

The fact that the youngsters in this picture are near water calls to my mind all those youngsters in mainline denominations who have not been inside a church since their baptism, and I’ve baptized quite a few of those. Since they were infants at the time, it is a lost memory.

Those youth who do remain in the church look upon those passages in their faith journey more like obligations. They are baptized. Some go through first communion classes. Even fewer will take a couple years of classes until confirmation. Then, they’re free (!), never to be seen again until maybe when they are married and begin having children of their own.

Amish children, on the other hand, are brought up in quite a different atmosphere. From what I have read about the Amish, children are brought up to stay within the bonds of family & faith.

That doesn’t mean they are perfect. Many of them confront the same issues as adolescents that teens in the general society deal with – alcohol and drugs – although not nearly to the same level.

I’ve often wondered where these youngsters in the photos are today and what they are doing. After all, it has been seven years since they made that magical trip to Kelley’s Island. Have they been back? Or is it just one of those fond memories that they’ll recall from time to time until it fades into oblivion? Do their mothers ever remind them?  

It’s amazing what one can read into a photo. These two will keep me pondering for years to come.