Annoying Children and Their Mothers

[1]

Luke 18:16

Holman Christian Standard Bible

¹⁶ Jesus, however, invited them: “Let the little children come to Me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

 

In rural Africa where I grew up, we used to drive to many places that you won’t find on any map. This would sometimes be on footpaths or even bundu-bashing. Often, we would decide to stop and eat lunch, choosing a spot a long way from any visible human habitation and with no telltale crisscrossing footpaths to indicate that people passed that way. Or, fortunately less often, we might puncture a tire and have to stop in order to replace the flat tire with the spare or, even worse, have to patch the tire.

When this happened, we would sit there, quietly minding our own business. We were making no noise, not even a blaring radio, and our conversation would be at normal levels, if at all. Yet, after a few minutes, someone would look up and see a child standing some ten or twenty feet away (3–6 m). A few minutes later there would be five children. Each would be wearing a short skirt or pair of short pants and maybe a well perforated top, all roughly the color of the earth around us. All were barefoot with skin also the color of the surrounding dirt. Typically, they had flies swarming about their eyes, which they never shooed away. They would stand there absolutely still, just like statues. And like little statues, they stood in absolute silence and simply stared.

The longer we lingered there, the more children would appear until we had a ring of children all around us. They stared expressionlessly at this strange sight of a stopped vehicle and strangers apparently amusing themselves.

This is how I imagine Christ’s travels were. Most people walked everywhere: there were no cars. They undoubtedly often stopped in the shade. And always there were children. At times the disciples would get a bit irritated with all these children clustering around all the time. Then when the mothers brought their children to Jesus, this must have been the last straw in their minds. Jesus put them straight, gently, and showed how much he respected the value of the little children.

Lord, help us remember the value of little children in Your kingdom.

 

 

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[1] https://thepreachersword.com/2012/07/09/jesus-loves-the-little-children/

Persecute Children?

Psalm 51:15

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁵ O Lord, pry open my lips
    that this mouth will sing joyfully of Your greatness.

[i]

Jocelyn (not her real name) was a student in a local public middle school. Their class had been studying Islam in their religion class. The class syllabus had them study all of the major world religions, except Christianity, in reasonable depth. They took at least three weeks for each religion. Students were required to try and think like a Muslim or a person in whatever religion they were studying at the time. They were to find all of the good things about the religion and not allowed to say anything negative about it.

In my schooling, the 8^th grade was the time our class went through the doctrines our church taught very, very thoroughly and completely. To this day the concepts I have of our doctrines is what I remember from that course when I was 12 years old. Naturally over the years my mature, analytical mind has reevaluated how I think about them today, but the foundation was laid that year−the year I was baptized. So personally, I regard that time frame in a child’s life as being most formative.

Jocelyn is by nature a very shy and retiring student, not wanting to make waves. She was unable to reconcile what she was learning in school and the fanatical Islamic terror tactics that she saw each night on TV. Finally the Lord opened her mouth, and she told her class that she is a Christian saved by grace and that “there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.” The teacher was horrified and sent her to the principal. The principal suspended her from school. He later told Jocelyn’s father that it is illegal to mention the name of Christ in a California public school. Jocelyn was not to come back to school until she signed a contract that she would not talk about Christ or Christianity on campus ever again. Of course her parents, who are new Christians attending one of the popular mega-churches, could not tolerate that denial of the American Bill of Rights to their daughter and have moved her to a Christian school.

Martin Luther, who suffered extreme opposition and persecution throughout his life, commented about this verse. “By asking the LORD to open his lips, David showed how difficult it is to offer thanks to God. This is something God demands of us. Talking about the Lord and thanking him publicly require an extreme amount of courage and strength because the devil is constantly trying to stop people from doing this. If we could see all of Satan’s traps, we would know why David prayed for the Spirit’s strength and asked the Lord himself to open David’s lips. He wanted to tell the devil, the world, kings, princes, and everyone about the Lord.”[ii]

Lord, open my lips and then use them to speak Your praises.

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[i] http://koha.andrews.edu/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=725217&query_desc=au%3A%22Gow%2C%20Haven%20Bradford.%22

[ii][ii] Martin Luther By Faith Alone: 365 Devotional Readings Update in Today’s Language,  ed. James C. Galvin (pub. 1998 by World Bible Pub. Iowa Falls, IA) from the page for November 15.