Lego and why black lives matter

Our son Caleb is seven and he’s obsessed with Lego at the moment. The minute he is finished with his school work for the day he races off down the passage like someone who just got let out of lockdown! He returns triumphantly a few moments later, staggering as he shoulders the enormous box of Lego that’s impossibly big for him to carry. 

He then proceeds to turn this box of Lego upside down on the tiled floor, and with an indescribably unpleasant noise that is indelibly imprinted in my mind, the lounge becomes Legoland.

After playing by himself for a while I know the question coming is inevitable. 

“Dad, will you come play with me?”

The question normally comes when I am at my busiest. At the time when I can least afford to sit and watch him build Lego. 

But what an invitation!

And so I sit and watch and play.

Not because I love Lego. (I’m a bit over it, to be honest!)

But because it’s important to him. I kneel down to join him in his joy. And today when he fell and grazed his leg outside, I knelt down to join him in his pain too.

And, when it’s Lego clean up time, I have to kneel yet again and help him fix the mess.

I think that’s what #blacklivesmatter needs to be for me. 

Not a chance to counter claim #alllivesmatter. 

But, a chance to kneel with brothers and sisters in their pain and say “I’m sorry you are hurting and I’m sorry you are being treated this way. Let’s work together to fix this.”

Why? Because that’s what Jesus would do. 

That’s what love does.

It kneels. And it shares joy. And pain. 

And it helps to fix the mess.