Baby Enemies

One of the great joys of my life is getting to play with my two little girls, Hadi and Lailah. It is exciting to see them learning about their world and laughing with each other. When playing with them, I frequently end up on the floor as their daddy jungle gym, which is fine until Hadi decides to jump on my stomach without abandon (she's not quite as light as she used to be).

As I was playing with my girls yesterday, adoring their wonder and playfulness, the thought crossed my mind--this is how every human starts out their life. Now, I know that many children do not have  parents who play with them and love them or who are even present. Many children are neglected and abused. But, nonetheless, every person in the world begins life as a harmless child. Everyone who has ever lived was once a helpless blob of cuteness that had the same desires for love, affection, and play as the rest of us.

And so, as I stared into the beautiful eyes of my daughters, I realized that I could just as easily have been staring into the eyes of countless dictators, criminals, and terrorists when they were babies. No matter how "evil" a person is, there was a time when they were not unlike my own daughters.

Just take a look at these pictures.

Hitler as an infant

Kim Jong II

Jeffrey Dahmer

Charles Manson

Emperor Hirohito

Normal children, adorable faces made in the image of God. And yet, all of these children grew up to become murderers, maniacs, or dictators responsible for some of the worst evils in modern history.

This thought reminds me of two things. First, evil runs through each one of us. Just because we start off cute and harmless does not mean we will always be that way. Regardless of our beginning, we are each capable of horrible evils just as these above individuals were.

But second, as I looked at my daughters, in some small way it humanized these "villains" for me. This fact helps me to see past the atrocities and anger to begin feeling a true sadness for them. Something in their lives went horribly wrong for them to abandon their innocence and compassion. As evil as individuals like Hitler or Bin Laden were, perhaps it would do us good to remember that they were once children as well--children who played with balls, yearned for love, and giggled at the simplest surprises.

One of the toughest commands of Jesus is to "love your enemies" (Matt. 5:44). I don't know how to fully do this, particularly when it is MY enemies. However, perhaps offering love to our enemies begins with reframing their humanity. Instead of looking only upon their offenses, perhaps we look wider to see their full story. Yes, they have become monsters, but they began as infants. If we do this, maybe we can move past pure anger and into grief, and out of that grief we can learn to forgive and pray for their well-being and salvation.

So the next time you look into a child's eyes, offer a prayer for them and their family that they will stray far from evil and cling to righteousness. And when you look into that child's eyes, imagine for a moment that you are also looking into your enemy's eyes, for your enemy was once a child too.