Luke 18:15-17 Through the Eyes of a Child
I love Jesus’ words from today’s reading. This is not the first time we have come across this story, but it still touches my heart. I LOVE children! Jesus uses children as an example several times. He talks about becoming as a child in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He speaks of being humble like a child. And He talks about the faith of a child. Jesus LOVES children!
In today’s story parents were bringing their children to Him to touch them. We looked at this story in Matthew 19:13-15. We took a walk in the parent’s shoes in that story. We also looked at Jesus’ using a child to emphasize his point on humility in Matthew 18:1-6 and Luke 9:46-48.
Luke tells us that parents were even bringing infants to Jesus. Can you imagine what the touch of Jesus brought about in their lives? Many of us dedicate our children to the Lord when they are small, but to actually have the hand of the Son of God physically on your child must have been amazing! His spiritual hand is amazing too though.
When I was driving in my car today, a familiar song came on the radio and it struck me as very appropriate for our reading today. It speaks of how as a child we so easily believe what the bible tells us and the simple relationship we had. We are full of childlike faith. Our God can do anything when we are little. But we don’t always keep that same faith. Our world gets complicated and doubts begin to creep in. WE start putting limits on what God can and can’t do. Our relationship changes and many times we walk away for a season.
I experienced this in my own life to some degree and I have seen this with my children too. It breaks my heart to see them struggle with what they once held so easily. Many of my children have been experiencing a distance in their relationship with God and it scares me! But then I remember God’s promise, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). I hold to that promise for them. I can use more of that childlike faith too. For all of us, I want to go back!
Father God, thank You for speaking to our hearts as a child. Thank You that You don’t chase children away but welcome them onto Your lap. Thank You that You gave me parents who knew You and helped build my childlike faith. Thank You for continuing to grow that faith into adulthood too. I know I still have a LOT of growing to do, but I trust You to carry me through it all the way, even if some of the trip is going back too.
