children of God, part one

He took a little child whom He placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the One who sent me."
Mark 9:36-37

People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and blessed them.
Mark 10:13-16

I'm always amazed at these passages and the power they convey. I was drawn to these particular Scriptures for a reason and after thinking over them for quite some time, I knew I had to write a blog post on them.

It's clear to see that Jesus loves His children so very much; so much that He even says that "if anyone were to ever cause any of these little ones to stumble, it would better if they flung themselves into the sea with rock around your neck!" And that if your hands causes you to sin, cut it off! Mark9:42-57 (Now Jesus doesn't want anyone to drown, I believe He is just using this analogy to show how powerful His love for the children is and the importance of never causing anyone to stumble. Also contrary to people who read the "cut your hand off" verse out of context, Jesus is not saying to literally cut your hand off, but to cut off the part of your life that causes you to sin.)

These are powerful words spoken by the Lord Himself and we would be wise to pay attention to them. But what do they mean? Here's what I've come up with after much thought and meditation on these verses...

I work with children and find myself so blessed and honored to help raise these little ones. In fact, as a woman of God, I know one of my highest callings is to nurture and raise children up for the Lord! That's a very big responsibility and an honor to know that God has trusted me with this calling. It's also very humbling. So everyday that I go to work and watch over the children, I try to remember how Jesus would have acted when the children ran to Him.

One thing that surprises me about children though, is their imaginations. I've never met one kid (so far anyways) whose mind was still fresh and swimming with ideas of "pretend" games. In fact one of the most common words used by young children is "pretend." So what does this tell us?

Well first off remember the words that Jesus spoke, "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." As an adult, I have long ago stoped playing games of pretend; so I realized that I needed some training from the little ones. What I found absolutely amazed me.

Children have no problem seeing things with new eyes; they are able to put on a fresh face every day. The other day I was encouraged to play "Zoo" with two little boys. They set up each room of the house as a certain area of the zoo and used their stuffed animals to act out everything. One room was the reptile room, the other was where the aardvark lived, and yet another room was the sheriff's office!

The reptile cage was made out of foam blocks, the front hall was closed off with pillows to make a cage for the lizard, and one of the rooms was made into sections with books and other things to make cages for various animals. Needless to say I was impressed! But after a while I found it harder to pretend while the boys were still in full "Zoo" game mode. They weren't concerned that they were still in their house, or that some of the game was probably silly (but oh so very cute) to most adults. But is a game of zoo actually silly? No, it's humbling.

Jesus told His disciples to humble themselves like children, He said that those who wanted to be first would be last, and those who were last would be first. Matthew 20:16

Within these past few months something dawned on me, something that the Lord placed upon my heart. Children are the most humble of all! With all of these games of "pretend" and use of their imaginations, they show themselves to be pure, humble, and therefore the greatest!

I believe that as we get older, our minds are more exposed to the sinful world we live in, and therefore our imaginations, humility and childlike joy seem to fade into the background. But this should not be so! Everyday that I head to work and watch the children play with one another, I learn something new and exciting about the words Jesus spoke. My understanding of humility, the kingdom of God, and the high calling of raising children seems to make more and more sense. My hope is this: that the world will not be afraid to step out in childlike faith and joy even when we are adults. I pray that people will let the inner child in them and the humility they once had to come to the surface so they can experience a new kind of intimacy with the Lord.

We are still to hold on to all the teachings of our adulthood, such as selflessness and love to all, but if we couple that with what we have already learned as children, I believe we will be even closer to the Lord than we ever though possible.

I will be doing another post on the children of God soon.

May God bless you all!
~Gretchen