"Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! "
Ålmeshultasjön, Nässjö, Sverige kindly provided by https://unsplash.com/@magnusostberg
Some years ago, I read The Emigrants by Wilhelm Moberg and when I took a trip to Sweden, I visited the Emigrant Museum in Växjö. Blighted by famine in the mid-1800’s, many Swedes migrated to Minnesota. Växjö is in Småland, a region that faced the heaviest migration toll.
Entering the building one is hit with an emotional cloud as the rooms reek with sadness: images of emaciated pensive creatures in sepia-tone like Holocaust victims facing an uncertain future.
As a child, my friends and I would skip school, take the Govan Ferry over the Clyde, and spend the day at the Glasgow Art Galleries and Museum. The Last of the Clan by Thomas Faed was a painting that always caught my eye; An old clan chief on a horse, a few kith ‘n’ kin, some trunks, and earthenware pots to start life in North America. They were victims of The Highland Clearances; a policy where sheep were favoured over humans for economic gain.
Such challenging times are repeated throughout the world from the persecution of the Lollards in Germany to the famines in Ireland. Events that are memorialised in songs like Runrig’s The Cutter, Shane McGowan’s Fairytale of New York and Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson’s musical, Kristina from Duvemåla.
When we left the museum, we found a café in town and sat for a while people-watching, and I thought about what I observed in the museum. I wondered if emigration in the national consciousness makes Sweden more egalitarian and kinder to migrants.
With the threat of deportation, many little migrants are falling victim to a strange syndrome called uppgivenhetssyndrom (Resignation syndrome). A catatonic state peculiar to migrant children who slip away from everyday reality due to the stress caused by the anxiety of an uncertain future.
At the time of writing, families with children cross the channel in a desperate attempt to run from poverty, exploitation, war and all forms of human cruelty.
I believe the following verses offer a future hope for children,
"Now people were bringing the little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them."
Mark 10:13-15 (BSB).