A Joy to Behold

I was at a Christmas party held by a local community centre. A significant percentage of the children there, and their parents, are of the Muslim faith, as is the lady who runs the community centre. For contrast, my family is decidedly not Mulsim. In fact, my little family have a number of religious views / faiths.

The party was too big to hold at the community centre itself, so it was held at a local French Catholic Church. There were children of other faiths there, also. It was a true pleasure to see all the kids playing together and having fun. No politics, no issues caused by different faiths and religions. Just a bunch of kids having fun together and learning from each other.

After a while, it was announced that Santa Clause was about to appear. All the kids joined together to sing a song. "Jingle Bells", I think it was. When Santa appeared, all the kids were excited, even the Muslim ones. And the parents were happy to see the smiles on their kids faces. It really was something special to see. Not a sign of anyone indicating that this was wrong because their faith doesn't believe in Christmas, Santa Clause, etc. Just a bunch of families from the local community, all together, celebrating the occasion, the season, whatever. And I was glad I was able to be a part of it.

What I saw tonight, which I already knew anyway, is that the world would be a whole lot better of a place to live if we could all get along, and see each other, as our children do. They don't see each other as Muslim vs. Christians vs. Hindu vs. whatever. They don't see skin colour. All they see is friends and playmates. We could learn a lot from our children.

When I see how my son interacts with other children in our neighbourhood from different ethnic backgrounds, I know that the future is full of hope and promise, and a great deal of potential for peace on Earth.