So, it’s been a really long time…
The last time I posted on here was September 2019! It’s
crazy to me that I haven’t written for so long. I write in my journal most
days, but I literally can’t remember the last time I picked up the laptop and
wrote away. It’s a nice feeling!
The littlest ones morning naptime is the time I usually
put on a cartoon for A and read my bible. One wet late September morning as I
prayed I found myself thinking on the verse from Luke where it says ‘let the
children come to me’. I looked it up in my Bible and read the following few
verses;
Now they were bringing even infants to him
that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But
Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do
not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you,
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it”
Even infants. That’s
the words that struck me as I read that passage.
A commentary I read said that it was the custom at that
time for mothers to bring their children to a distinguished Rabbi on their
first birthday that he might bless them. The word infant suggests a very young
child and that, Jesus says, is who we are to be like.
As I think back to my little girl when she was one, I
remember quite a challenging time. She had no concept of danger, but she wanted
to explore everything. She couldn’t walk. She couldn’t even stand alone. She
had a limited vocabulary. She wasn’t able to eat totally independently and she
wasn’t potty trained. I had to keep my eyes on her constantly because
everything went in her mouth. She was absolutely wonderful and she was
completely dependent on me.
Jesus says in this passage that if we want to receive the
blessings God has for us in Jesus, we need to be like a child, quite possibly a
very little child.
It’s generally agreed that the reason Jesus said this is
because children have a huge capacity for love and haven’t learnt to be cynical
yet. They receive blessings without trying to make themselves worthy of them.
They trust those who love and care for them wholeheartedly, or sadly for some
children, until they have good reason not to.
But that isn’t what struck me as I read those verses that
morning. Instead I was left with one lasting impression. I felt humbled.
It’s very easy to think we are the stars of the show. We
may have a stellar education, much life experience, incredible gifts of
intelligence or creativity. We might live in a beautiful house, drive the
smartest car, spend our evenings discussing politics and literature and
theology. We might be a pretty impressive person. But Jesus says we should
emulate children.
In reality, when you strip it all back, that’s what we
are like. We think we’ve got ourselves together, but without God, we bring
nothing to the table.
Paul David Tripp says ‘if we followed Jesus for a
thousand years, we would need his grace as much for the next day as we did the
first day we believed’.
It’s true that as we grow in the knowledge of Jesus and
are filled more and more with His Spirit we begin to look more like Him. But
our knowledge of God is like the tip of my little finger. He is so infinitely
more, so much bigger, greater, more wonderful than we can possibly imagine. Our
understanding of the Bible and His plans for us is tiny in comparison to all
that He holds in His hands.
Without Him we have no power. We cannot make our sick
friend well. We cannot change someone who struggles with addiction. We don’t
have the power to change our finances overnight. We cannot will ourselves to
meet the love of our life, or start a family if we struggle with infertility.
But God can.
We need to constantly remember that we need God, like an
infant needs its parents. We need Him to keep us from the danger of sin. We
need His guidance and wisdom to make good choices in our lives. There will be
days when we need His strength to take the next step, even to get out of bed in
the morning. We need Him to give us the words to explain our faith, to
encourage others, to put words of knowledge into our hearts to supernaturally
bless others. We need to spend time daily in His word so that we can become
strong. We need to come to Him often with our failures and receive His always
ready forgiveness and acceptance. We need to keep our eyes on Him day by day so
that we don’t stumble. Our gifts and abilities, those things that make us
unique, were given to us by Him. We need to depend on Him every moment so that
we use them well.
It can be hard to come to terms with our complete
neediness. It is humbling. It’s good to spend time thinking on that. But God
doesn’t leave us in our need. He doesn’t just pick us up and say ‘you’ll do’.
That same day I was reading about the parable of the
prodigal son. The young son who squandered his inheritance comes back to his
father, seeking forgiveness and asking to be even just a servant in his
father’s house.
‘But while he was still a long way off, his
father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said to his father ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his
servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on
his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and
let us eat and celebrate. For my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost,
and is found’ Luke 15
This is a picture of God’s love for us. We are His
children, who He created in His image and gave everything, yet we chose to run
away and pursue the pleasures of the world. When we come face to face with our
sinfulness and frailty we can often feel unworthy to even come close to the
Lord in repentance. But God doesn’t come to us in righteous anger and cast us
away. He clothes us in beautiful robes. He puts a ring on our finger and shoes
on our feet. He sits down with us and spends time with us and welcomes us in
once again.
The love that God has for us His children is
unexplainable. Think on that today, how lost you would be without Him, and how
thankful you are for His unending love.
Ps I’ll try not to leave it months before I write again.
;)
