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 receive 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 think my favorite line from It's a Wonderful Life is when George Bailey says "Why'd we have to have all these kids?" Steph and I say it to each other all the time to make each other laugh whenever the kids just get over-the-top out of control. Other times, when they get really crazy, we look at each other and say: "we wanted these???"
Jesus says that the only way go to heaven is to become like a child. Why would He say that? Why does God constantly refer to Himself as the Father and us as His children? I believe He does that for many reasons. There are many similarities that we can use to relate to our Christian life.
First, God says that we need to be like a child because children believe what they are taught without question. As adults, we've been pre-indoctrinated, so when someone tells us something different, we immediately dismiss it as false simply because we were not taught that as a child.
As I thought about this more, I realized that there are many other ways we can learn about our relationship with God by studying our relationship with our kids.
Many times, our kids can be very frustrating and seem impossible, but we still love them, don't we? Even while they yell and scream at us and throw the giant tantrum, we would still give up our own lives for them. That's how God is with us. Even while we continue to screw up over and over again, He still loves us more than anything, and He still died for us in spite of our tantrums.
Do you know how we feel when our kids curse us? can you picture the pain that gives us? we just want to go to a corner and cry when they do this. Do you think God is any different? Do you think it hurts God when we curse Him? Do you think He cries? I do....I believe He can be easily hurt.
In contrast, we also have the ability to make God proud. When we go to events where our kids either graduate from a specific grade, or they're being honored for an accomplishment they achieved, what are we doing? We're just sitting there trying not to cry, aren't we? We are so proud of them it drives us to tears of joy. I believe God is also the same way. When we honor Him, I believe it brings Him happiness. I believe that's the main reason He created us to begin with. Think of the privileges we give our kids when they honor us. We look for ways to spoil our kids when they do the right thing. I believe God is the same way. God will look for ways to spoil us if we honor Him.
So, today, let's honor God in what we do. Let's do it because we love Him. Then, afterwards, we need to be aware that God is blessing us...because if we continue to honor God even while He's blessing us, He will continue to bless us multiple times more.
