Pastor's Thoughts

Let the Children Come: Jesus Speaks

Luke 18:15-17: “And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them.  ¹⁶ But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  ¹⁷ "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

As adults, living in an adult world, we sometimes forget that there is a child within us that has come with us from our youth.  It is the child within us that calls us to be good, to love others as we would have others love us, and to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  I became a minister because I remembered what had been important to me in my childhood: music and ministry.  Jesus calls us to remember our youth because that is the time in life when people like you and I decide, and then become, whatever we will be in life.  Like God, whose name translates from the Hebrew as, I Will Be Whatever I Will Be, we too have the freedom of choice to be whatever we will be.  Sometimes, the choices we must make in order to be what we want to be are difficult, and we may become twisted and wounded by the forces that we encounter in the living of our lives.  That’s when Jesus calls to us, to remind us, to “receive the kingdom of God like a child” and also to help the child within us to reach out and lend a helping hand to the children around us that need our love and our helpful guidance.  Jesus is calling us to give the love to the children around us that we may not have been blessed with when we were young.  Jesus calls to the child, the youthful spirit within each of us, to help the children who need our help, right now.  In responding to God’s calling to us to love one another, my hope is that we adults have not become so crusty and cantankerous that the example we show to our youth validates their own suspicious attitudes toward their adult peers.  Life is short, and we have only a limited time to impart to our youth the importance of what Jesus speaks to each of us as to what IS important.

Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you. (and) Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments stand ALL the law and the prophets!”  Well, if we are going to love others as ourselves, we must be able to first love ourselves in a way that allows us to love others.  We need to love, first and foremost, our self.  If we are angry with ourselves and others, it’s not going to be easy to love others, is it?  If we have been wounded, hurt and abused, it’s not going to be easy to want to show love to others, is it? Yet, that is what Jesus is calling us to do, isn’t it?  Loving others was so important to Jesus, that He commands us to love others!  Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you!” (and) “Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 

¹⁷ "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

Let the child within us love the children around us!

Pastor Jan

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