Old Testament
Zechariah 8:4-5
4 The LORD of Armies says: “Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand because of their old age.
5 The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”
New Testament
Mark 10:13-16
13 They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were bringing them.
14 But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation and said to them, “Allow the little children to come to me! Don’t forbid them, for God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these.
15 Most certainly I tell you, whoever will not receive God’s Kingdom like a little child, he will in no way enter into it.”
16 He took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
Zechariah imagines a city made safe enough for the very old and the very young. Old men and women sit in the streets, unafraid. Boys and girls play in the squares. It is a picture of peace that can be tested: if children can play, if elders can sit, then life has been ordered with gentleness.
In Mark, Jesus will not let children be pushed aside. He is indignant with the disciples’ brisk efficiency. He receives the little ones, takes them in his arms, and blesses them. The kingdom is not hostile to childhood. It honours it.
To pray for restoring childhood is to pray for more than provision. It is to pray for a moral atmosphere: protection from violence, exploitation, and neglect; schools and services that can see the child behind the behaviour; households where play is possible because fear is not in charge.
Lord, give our communities streets where children are safe and elders are honoured. Heal what has stolen play from the young. Bless those who work for safeguarding and restoration, often in hidden ways. And teach the Church to become a place where children are not used, ignored, or idealised, but welcomed as kin, with room to laugh and room to heal.