Like many others, I grew up with nursery rhymes.

“Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.”

“Mary had a little lamb.”

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

Most of those rhymes are familiar and sweet. They are baked into our childhood and culture. But some of the more memorable rhymes have a dark, ugly undertone.

Remember this one? “Ring-a-round the Rosie, a pocket full of posies. Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!”

I remember singing that on a school playground as I played with classmates and friends. However, the backdrop of this rhyme is the Black Death bubonic plague. Posies are the flowers used to mitigate the smell of dying and death. Ashes represent the cremated bodies of those who had succumbed. It’s pretty graphic when you know its story.

While I was somewhat familiar with the context of that little ditty, this next one was a complete surprise. “Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, and who do you think were there?

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker, and all of them gone to the fair.”This is a family-friendly newspaper, so I’ll try to be delicate. Initially, this nursery rhyme had three women in a tub. The Butcher, Baker, and Candlestick maker represented “respectful folks” who were eager participants in a fourteenth-century version of a modern peepshow.

I’ll leave the explanation as is, knowing I’ll never be able to repeat rub-a-dub-dub without knowing its perverse background.

Why tell you about this? Am I trying to ruin what little innocence we have left? Not at all. But we live in a world of outrage and shock. There is always somebody somewhere pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable. Some want to make the vulgar and profane normal. Far too many want to indulge in any and every craving, no matter how perverse.

But this is nothing new. The good book says, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 CSB)

What am I to make of this? How do I respond to a world-run amuck? Do I wring my hands and rail at the perversities? Do I try to use governments to legislate morality?

As much as I’d like the laws of the land to reflect my theological beliefs, I’m not called to force anyone to follow the precepts by which I order my life.

I am, however, called to a sacrificial life of love—a life lived seeking the best of those around me. From that perspective, here’s the best prescription for changing our world:

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians‬ 13‬:4‬-8‬a CSB‬‬)

Peace to all!

Les Ferguson Jr. grew up in Vicksburg and is a 1980 graduate of Warren Central High School. He holds a B.A. in Bible from Magnolia Bible College and an M.A. in New Testament Preaching from Johnson University. He lives and ministers in Oxford, Miss., and is the author of “Still Wrestling—Faith Renewed through Brokenness.” He can be reached at lfergusonjr@gmail.com.