Let the little children come to me...

 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. ;)