Thoughts for the Day

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

In the mid 1980s many Christian denominations looked at all-age worship, and how best to achieve it. How might we worship with children, teenagers and adults all together. We could just include all ages in a service, but continue using language that only some would understand, or put the children up front as if they were in a concert, but we knew that this was not all-age worship. One of the spin-offs of this thinking was to hold all-age activity days to prepare for a service the next Sunday. As the Diocesan Children's Adviser I was frequently called in to run these days.

One Saturday with the theme of "God's world' I sent everyone out to look around them and return with words or objects to thank God for. Words like 'sky', 'sea', 'trees', and 'hills', were added to our brainstorming board. But the smallest children returned with objects in their hands - a tiny yellow leaf; a small round stone; and a tiny ladybird held carefully in cupped hands. The toddlers had not really observed the big picture around them, but concentrated on the smallest of things, like the colour of a petal, or the spots on a ladybird.

Babies and toddlers don't need complex arguments about faith. They will respond to smiling eyes, as well as to a gentle voice and loving arms, and we can see this in our story of Jesus and the children. They have complete trust in Jesus, and we need to learn from them. As with yesterday's Thoughts (Jesus rejoices ) where having faith was praised over intellect, so today Jesus reminds us that we need to come to Him in simple trust like a small child.

Almighty God,
You call us as a loving father -
holding out Your hands to us,
and encouraging us to come to You.
Give us faith to step forward
in complete trust
even when we seem to be at odds
with the rest of the world.
May we feel Your love
enfold and embrace us this day.
Amen.