Caroll Spinney is not a name that many of you would know. He has been working the same job for 46 years, teaching children the alphabet and moral values. He did it all with a big yellow bird on Sesame Street. He recently did an “Ask Me Anything” session on a popular website. During that session, a person asked him about his most meaningful interaction with a child while filming on or off air. Mr. Spinney responded with a story of a letter from the parents of a 5-year-old boy dying of cancer. They wrote asking him to call their child. Big Bird was his favorite and always seemed to cheer him up. Spinney said that the boy was so ill and knew he was dying. When he called, the boy was very happy and asked, “Is it really you, Big Bird?” Spinney replied, “Yes, it is really me.” They spoke for about ten minutes, and the child said, “Thank you for calling me Big Bird. You’re my friend. You make me so happy.” Spinney received a letter some time later telling him that the boy passed away shortly after talking to his friend Big Bird.
Mr. Spinney’s comment after the story was this. “I could see that what I say to children can be very important.” I know that the importance of what we say to a child isn’t a new revelation, but the story highlights its importance. The ten minutes he took to make that call made all the difference for the boy and that family. What if we took the time to talk to children? To talk with them as though they mattered, as a friend? They like the attention of older people or the “big kids,” as some children that shall not be named called our young adults.
When the apostle John writes 1, 2 and 3 John, he is in his older years. He writes these letters to Christians, and he addresses them as “children” 17 times in the three short messages. He understood his authoritative role as an apostle and also a father figure in the faith. Here is how he spoke to children.
“Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7).
“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).
“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them world; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
“I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4).
John’s communication was with the purpose of helping the “children” have a closer relation with the Christ.