But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the
Five years ago this week, Mister Rogers changed neighborhoods.
Maybe it's the writer in me, that part that's open to the romantic notion that drama is found in every corner of life. Maybe it's the kid in me, that part that remembers the cellists and coal miners, doctors and puppets who were all friends of a friend to very nearly everybody: Fred Rogers.
Fred McFeely Rogers passing was the lead story in almost every newscast in the
Mister Rogers remembered what most of us have forgotten in our race to keep up; that simple really is better, especially for our children. In an age where television pulsates, subjecting even the young to disjointed sound bites without texture or nuance, Mister Rogers knew a visit to a crayon factory was just the ticket. When CNN broke new ground by plastering the airwaves with the bombing of
Grown men and women turned to mush when they met him in person, so his appeal never was purely to the wee ones. But it was those little faces God called him to serve, and he never seemed to forget it.
Public Broadcasting System's president, Pat Mitchell, was quoted saying this about him: "He is somebody who is completely integrated. He is somebody who is what he believes. His life and his work and who he is inside are one person."
What a marvelous testimony! Who wouldn't love to be remembered that way?
Mister Rogers was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1963, with a special charge to carry his ministry into the marketplace of television. For the next 40 years, he did just that, carefully, tenaciously, meticulously cultivating the part of Creation he was gifted by God to tend: the hearts and minds of children. While the world sped up, Mister Rogers purposely did not. He looked into the camera, eye to eye with thousands of tiny viewers, and told them he loved them.
Likely your children were among his audience. Mine were. Likely even you were among those who heard him day after day singing "it's you I like". I was. Even now, when we've grown too old and our pace is too hectic to pay attention to his words, a part of his gift rings in our ears, and in our children's ears.
Jesus teaches us to serve others with humility and compassion. Mister Rogers did just that, showing even the most cynical among us what the love of Jesus looks like in the real world.
When the world writes our final story, may there be someone who says of us: "Here was a Christian whose inner faith and outer self were one and the same."
The passing of Fred Rogers made our neighborhood a little lonelier. Oh, but don't you know how happy heaven was to see him!
--Randy Kilgore
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