Posted on: Saturday, October 23, 2004

EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Childlike purity, love powerful

By H.M. Wyeth

In 2 Kings 5, the story is told how the prophet Elisha cured Naaman, a Syrian war hero, of leprosy. Naaman and Elisha are the story's two big names, yet the narrative's pivotal character is an anonymous Israelite captive. All we know about her is that the Syrians had snatched her away during a raid.

Because of customs of the time, it was possible that some or all of her family had been killed, and that she had been abused before she became one of Naaman's household slaves.

Could anyone blame her, therefore, if she hated the entire Syrian nation, and Naaman in particular? Certainly, she had no reason to wish him well. Yet she compassionately told her mistress, Naaman's wife, that Elisha could cure him.

What is just as astonishing is that anyone would listen to her and relay her information to her master, and that he would act upon it. How could a child and a menial speak with enough authority to make someone of Naaman's status take notice? Was he so desperate to be healed that he was willing to listen to anyone?

With characteristic terseness, the Bible tells us only the essentials. It leaves it to us to ponder the details. We learn nothing of what prompted the girl's advice, of whether she received any reward for it, or of her subsequent fate. Yet she has much to teach us.

Hers is one of several Bible stories (see also Genesis 37 and 39-45, and Daniel 1) about young people wrenched from their homes and forced to serve foreign masters. A common theme is that, far from cherishing hatred for and plotting revenge against their captors, these children become loving members of their households. In most cases, the affection is mutual.

The stories teach adaptability as a survival skill and admonish the reader not to accept the notions that cruelty necessarily begets cruelty and that those who suffer brutality as children inevitably become brutal adults. Instead of being stripped of their innocence, the children in these stories find it to be a source of strength for themselves and others.

The Bible repeatedly shows how a child's pure love surmounted ancient disputes. Is not this exactly what our troubled world needs?

Jesus said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)

Clearly, he considered childlike innocence essential to attaining spirituality. His statement also implies that this innocence is not lost, but is available to anyone willing to discard such unhealthy mental habits as resentment, cynicism, fear and hatred.

Like the little maid of Israel, anyone can embody the purity and love against which cruelty and hate cannot prevail.

H.M. Wyeth is a member of Christian Science Society, Kaua'i.