In the 1st Century Roman world of the New Testament, children didn’t have a lot of rights and the old saying of kids should be seen but not heard was the way of life for youth. They were educated, but getting to be in the presence of Christ or mature religious leaders was something kids were discouraged from by most.
When Jesus entered into this world and became human He challenged that perspective by not only allowing kids to approach Him and take His time but encouraging His disciples and His followers to be more like them.
Photos can say a lot.
If you look close and start to ask the right questions you can begin to
see so much in a photo that might just go by unnoticed. Take for instance this
photo from May 2019 at our Church.
When we are all born we have one major role in life to play. We are a
designed from before birth to be needy, dependent, self-centered,
ungrateful, chaos-causing, demanding sons and daughters. Our role and
function is to take whatever peace and harmony that our parent(s) had
developed and bring them huge amounts of stress, sleep depravity, and in
many cases financial pain. It is really a simple role to carry out and
we come equipped with the ability, drive, and demanding spirit to make
it happen. Then we start growing up.
You may or may not know this but the ampersand (&) was once the 27th letter of the English Alphabet see photo (left) from 1836 text book. Early in the development of the English language two letters “E” and “T,” were commonly combined “et” which meant “and.” Over time the writing of those two letters began to look more and more like what we know today is the “ampersand.”
Even the name “Ampersand” comes from a contracting of the following phrase at the end of the reciting of the alphabet “ x, y, z and per se and.”
If you are still reading after that intro hang with me for a few more lines. I promise there is a spiritual connection or two coming.
Human’s love, love, love each other. Don’t we? Maybe what I mean to say is that we humans just love, love, love each other when it’s just “Us.” Confused? Stop and think about the people that you love, the people that you know, that you care about, that you would gladly do anything for. Chances are, for most of you reading this; the number of people you love is a very small number of people out of the 8 billion that are currently alive on the planet. In fact, it’s probably smaller than 100 total people or 0.00000125% of people alive today. Crazy, Right?
You may or may not know this but the ampersand (&) was once the 27th letter of the English Alphabet see photo (left) from 1836 text book. Early in the development of the English language two letters “E” and “T,” were commonly combined “et” which meant “and.” Over time the writing of those two letters began to look more and more like what we know today is the “ampersand.” 
