The Children

“and said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn around and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”

Matthew 18:3 NET

The innocent unwrapping of pretty paper. The adults patting themselves on the back as what lay beneath a tree a bounty a plenty. We are good parents, for we provided these extras. We may secretly compare with others and what they have, we my have held on a little too tightly to the shopping this year, spent a bit much, been carried away with elation. For this too shall pass. 

Tomorrow is December 26th and the reminders of what we aught to do shine as bright as the bulbs do on this Christmas morning. We are called to be consistent us adults, yet, we show children emotional doing by overdoing, and overreacting, we are at times their biggest stumbling blocks.

Children’s minds are infinite in possibilities. Like Jesus, Immanuel, How numerous are his ways. The mind of a child submits easier than a man’s ego. A child is not holding a grudge like a man and loves everyone equally. A child is malleable and less in himself than any adult. Remember that Jesus came to earth greater than the men we end up being. 

“Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! It is necessary that stumbling blocks come, but woe to the person through whom they come.”

Matthew 18:7 NET

The men who refine children to the world’s ways revive Satan in what was once the purest version of man, a child. Those who mislead are like priests who know better or Christians who gossip. Man is a sinner but when we return to our vomit or when we are “lukewarm," we are undesirable by God (Revelations 3:16).   

“What do you think? If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost.”

Matthew 18:12-14 NET

Children are lost everyday because their parents were lost, and so on. Intervention is painful, yet necessary to deviate and gain attention of children who become lost, grown into self-sacrificial men, converted back into children, renewed. 

On this Christmas morning, the reason we celebrate, Jesus, requests submission to him as the Living God who died for us and to love, all, more than ourselves. 

"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?"Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."- Mathew 18:21-22. 

It is the act that children show the adults that tell us what we have taught. Whether this is done by way of faulty teaching- coveting, gossip, negativity towards others, infringe on others boundaries, or what they can show as in spite of our adult, audacious, and at times, all-knowing selves. Humility is not a place in China ( I don't think it is) and we will be humbled by some of the simplest of minds. Children are a beautiful rendition of the purest, undefiled versions of man, remember their malleable minds when you interact with them, what you show, not just what you command. They love and count on us adults for what they need. This year, let's give them the great gift they could every receive, salvation. This is not purchased, but demonstrated through our submission of self-righteous ways, 

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."- John 14:6

Merry Christmas!