Matthew 19.13-15

Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. 

This subject of children should sound rather familiar to us, for Jesus JUST talked about little children in Matthew 18: 1-9. There he tells us they are a great example of what the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are like. Now we are told much the same, the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. To the weak and to the innocent, as we have learned. 

If something is mentioned a few times in a short period, it is in hope that it is driven into your mind, that you internalize it. Maybe Jesus really wanted us to get this then. 

It reminds me of “Heaven is for Real” a book written about a boy who died for a short period of time and was able to tell his family about heaven. I’m not advising we all put our eggs in the basket of this boy’s story, but it was pretty good all the same. Anyway, what I remember most from his story is how he talks about Jesus’ love for children:

No matter what new tidbits he revealed, though, Colton had one consistent theme: he talked constantly about how much Jesus loved the children. I mean that: constantly. 
He would wake up in the morning and tell me: “Hey Dad, Jesus told me to tell you, He really loves the children.”
Over dinner at night: “Remember, Jesus really loves the children.”
Before bed, as I helped him brush his teeth, “Hey, Daddy don’t forget,” he’d say, garbling the words through a mouthful of toothpaste foam, “Jesus said he really, really loves the children!”
…Colton chirped all day long about Jesus loving the children. It got so that it didn’t matter what Bible story she or I read to our tiny evangelist at night…Colton wrapped up the night with the same message: “Jesus loves the children!” 

Since we’ve recently looked at how we can be like children, I want to focus on how we can love and invest in them. When Jesus placed his hands on them to pray, this was like giving a blessing, a type of consecration to God. I wonder what this can look like today? 

First, if you are a parent, your responsibility to raise them up in the Lord is HUGE! And I hope you are excited about that. It makes me so happy to see parents doing this. I remember a couple at my church back home who would pray with their daughters and son before every meal. And I mean from birth. From the time they had their first child, they would hold her infant hands as she slept or cooed in her seat. They instilled a discipline of prayer that these children won’t ever remember not doing. I read another story about a family that would go to the local soup kitchen every Saturday morning, and their children helped as early as they could. This instilled in them a life long passion for service, because they saw their parents were passionate about it. 

To those of us who are not parents, there are still surely children around you. I cannot help but think about the ones who are living in broken homes. They are your neighbors kids. They are your nieces and nephews. If you are even just interceding on their behalf, you are doing something noble. And if you can somehow get in there, be someone in their life instilling God’s truth and uncompromising love at any age, you are doing something. 

A professor recently told me of a study done about children living in tragic circumstances, such as an abusive or neglectful home life. They were trying to find out why some kids would overcome it and become successful in spite of the odds against them, and why some would collapse under it, never coming to a place of healing or self worth. They discovered one predictor of success was whether or not there was just one person in the child’s court; someone on their side to value them and acknowledge their voice and pain. It would just take one person, a single individual to believe in them and have concern over them. It would be enough for the child to have hope, to bear the tragedy of their surroundings without a broken spirit. 

This is important to our King. Jesus really loves the children. Who can you invest in? Who can you pray 
for? Who needs someone to stand with them on their behalf?


Jackie Scharfenberg