For thought and meditation

[rl69]

But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."—Matthew 19:14 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=01fc82dcf7&e=3dd732485b)We need God's help to be moms and dads. We live in a culture that is largely hostile to the family. It certainly does not support the role of mother and father. In fact, in many ways, culture (music, movies, television, etc.) tends to undermine the role of the parent.

In the Gospels, we read about how the parents brought their children to Jesus. "One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him. Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, 'Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children'" (Luke 18:15–16 (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/x-apple-data-detectors://2)NLT).

I love that story. The parents see Jesus and bring their kids to Him, but the disciples push them back. They say things like, "Don't bother the Master right now," "He is busy," or "He is tired." And Jesus says, "Hold on now. Let those little children come to Me, for such is the kingdom of Heaven!" Let them come. The kids came to Christ and loved Him, and He loved them and their parents.

In the original language it could be translated, "They kept bringing their children to Jesus." I like the fact that even though they were rebuffed by the disciples, they were persistent. If you are a smart parent, you will keep bringing your child to Jesus. Your part is important. Be faithful in it.

And remember, nothing can really happen through us until it has first happened to us. Paul writes in Philippians 4:9, "The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do." What your children need most is to see your faith in action

[Blackwater]

The innocence in little children will always be inspiring. They know little else BUT trust. Everyone is bigger and stronger than they are, except their friends, and they love those who treat them well, and fear those who do not. What a perfect example of how we are supposed to be, and how we're supposed to see outselves in relation to Christ. We are the "masters" of a sort to our children, and the Lord is Master over all, and it's so fitting and proper to tell these little ones about Christ. They have not yet built up a resistance to belief, and they can actually "see" farther, I think, than most adults, who after being conditioned to this world, sometimes can see nothing else. But little children, like a fully developed Christian, can see well beyond this realm, and knows it's really real. How? How does a magnet attract iron? When God breathed the breath of Life into us, he deposited a tiny little bit of Himself into each of us - our spirits - and that spirit knows its origins, and like iron to a magnet, is naturally and inevitably attracted to the larger entity. It's sort of like gravity, or mass attraction. Dust falls to earth because it is naturally attracted to the larger mass. So it is with our spirits. It naturally senses whence it came, and knows it's destined to go back there one day. It's how everything in our finite universe works, and certainly, it's how things work in God's realm also. Why would He create anything differently? He has given us SO much! We will never succeed in understanding it all, and yet, we have come to understand so much of this finite world now. The realm God lives in, though, is probably past all our ability to understand or conceive. What a glorious day it will be when we shed these frail old bodies, and go to live with the Lord in a realm where we'll never grow old or infirm, where there will be no sadness or "problems," ..... only the pure joy of being with the One we were always intended to be with, and worship and love. I doubt any of us can even conceive of a realm like that. I know I can't. I've lived too long in this world where evil persists and seems to want to dominate, ever increasingly here.

Children here are always one of our purest forms of joy. Remember when you saw your own for the first time at the hospital? I'll never foget my own experience with that. It's as though a portal is momentarily opened for us, and we can see INTO what they are, and all the hopes and dreams and promise they hold. "Magic moments," to be sure! And what will children be like in Heaven? They DO die sometimes, just like all the rest of us, you know. I believe they'll be the most honored among all there, for they are the purest and most whole of any of us mortals. They deserve a higher status, because they haven't been tainted in the least by this world and all the evil in it.

Yeah, this is just my imagination, admittedly, but until I find a better dream of Heaven, it'll do. If children have always had a special place here, I think it's very likely they'll hold a very special place in Heaven also. It just seems to fit with the way God tends to work.