Reading, Writing, and Reality

"If you have 4 bananas and give 2 to your mom and dad, how many bananas do you have left to eat for breakfast?" the kindergarten teacher asked a girl in her class.

"None," the girl answered. "I don't like bananas."

In a nearby school, kindergarten and first grade students have began gathering in class rooms to learn their letters, numbers, and simple arithmetic. But as noted above, math isn't always that simple. 

The importance of learning isn't as simple as reading, writing, and arithmetic either. In fact the most important subject may be the one our children are not learning. Like the truth about Jesus and how they need to know Him personally. 

Scripture says people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. For lack of understanding the unchanging truth about God. Today's young people grow up being offered dozens of options for everything from shampoo to salvation. One young mother recently said that since the Bible can be interpreted differently by each person, how can we say absolute truth exists? 

That sounds like "banana math." The kindergartener couldn't say she had 2 bananas to eat for breakfast when she doesn't include them in her diet. In the same way, when we reject the foundational truth of God's Word, it becomes ambiguous, undefinable, and circumstantial at best.

Crisp September mornings, yellow buses, and backpacks remind us that another year is underway. Each day our children and grandchildren gather in classrooms to learn the building blocks for a good education. May the school year remind us to also teach our little ones the Reality of God's Word and of salvation through Jesus alone. We can't let them grow up and step out into this world without the most valuable truth they will ever learn. And as most of us know by now, they do grow up fast.