Christmas is for children. Merle A. Johnson writes: “It is heaven, made of children.” Children do not have the intellectual problems of many adults with angels speaking to shepherds, a star that leads wise men to a manger, and a baby born of a virgin. 

The Christmas season will once again be filled with pageants where children wear old nightgowns and pretend to be wise men or shepherds, and little girls carry angels’ wings on their backs. Let us therefore help our precious children truly enjoy this Christmas. 

Matthew’s gospel draws a parallel between the Jewish nation’s grief over Herod’s execution of the male children and Rachel, Israel’s mother figure, weeping for the exiled children of Israel. 

I want us to consider two things about Rachel’s children and the Herods of our present world. 

Firstly, the children are still affected by humanity’s cruelty. The Herods of our time pay their children wages far too small, with the simple excuse that they need the work. Parental Herods by the thousands in our countries each day rape and torture Rachel’s children. (New Era 25 November 2025).

They do not go to prison because of weak child abuse laws and other sorts of legal loopholes. They say children are theirs, so outsiders have nothing to do with them. 

The children are then left to be beaten, burnt with cigarettes, and abused in all sorts of ways. Of late, numerous toddlers have been raped by the Herods who believe this will relieve them of Aids (New Era, 11 December 2020 and 27 November 2025).

Little children are not regarded as human by some people unless they are such. Kill them all, the Herods keep shouting, like their forebearers two thousand years ago. 

Secondly, the environment affects Rachel’s children; the Herods do not care for the children. They corrupt their environment with filth in literature, movies, and TV. The children are exposed to violence, foul language, and explicit sex in the media. 

The Herods make drug addicts of school children and will continue with impunity if we remain silent. (New Era, 12 December 2025) Let us work towards a safe and good environment for our children.

The standards of a nation are best shown by what it allows to happen to Rachel’s children. The greatest crimes of all are those against children. Rachel continues to cry because society is far too lenient. 

Every time I see child abuse, broken homes, and narcotic traffic, I ask myself: “What can I do?” The trouble is that many of these Herods sit in the community and the Church. 

There are things we can do now to demonstrate that the light still shines in the darkness, that there is hope for our children to be rescued, so that adults as well as our children may enjoy this Christmas. 

Jan’s Corner wishes its readers a Merry Festive Season and Prosperous 2026

*Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of the ||Kharas Regional Council and former! Nami#nus constituency councillor. He holds a Diploma in Theology (B-Theo) (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), and a Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA.