Mention the New Age movement and you're likely to get amused condescension:  "Oh yes, crystals."  "Oh yes, astrology."  To many people, the New Age movement means trendy gimmicks and silly superstitions.  That should concern us.  For the New Age movement is more than a matter of this technique or that gimmick. What underlies all these surface phenomena is a way of looking at life, a philosophy, a world view, a faith.  And it is a faith hostile to Christian faith.

I can think of no better way to explain the New Age world view than by quoting extensively from a children's book I just read.  A classic, I might add. (And you thought you could trust the classics to be harmless?) It's entitled The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett.

Most of you who have children will probably recognize the title.  But how many of you noticed that about two-thirds of the way through the book, the author launches into a straightforward explication of Hindu pantheism? (Do you know what your children are reading?)

In the Bible, having many children is a blessing from God. But in our society, if a couple has more than two children, people sneer, "Haven't they heard of birth control?" Babies are seen as a frightful invasion to be halted.

Babies are an invasion, all right. They are an invasion of love into our selfishness, an invasion of joy into our dullness, an invasion of mystery into our predictability, an invasion of purpose into our aimlessness, an invasion of wonder into our boredom, an invasion of life to carry on after we die. Babies are God's invasion of blessing, promise and future.