Because Jesus did love childrenA fact none could ever deny
He praised their purity saying
All should become as small fry.
Jesus told the grownups there
“Let the children come to Me.
They are the sweet and innocent ones
Of this world, you see.”
“Gather Round Me Children”
© Corinne Mustafa
12/10
I recently heard three stories about some grandchildren of a couple of my friends. Kathy had gone to the snow and rented a cabin for her sons and their family. The children are Jackson who is five, Lila who is two, and baby Allie who's not quite a year old. The little one, Lila, was to say a prayer of grace, and she squinted her little eyes up kind of like she was trying to think, and said the squeaky little voice “Oh God,” and she proceeded to say her prayer was such a little scrunchy look on her face as she tried to make the best prayer she could get. I wasn't there, but sounded beautiful to me. At another meal, when it was Jackson's turn, he also scrunched his face up and spoke in his little squeaky voice. He told everyone around the table that he believed that he was supposed to sing his grace prayer. And so he did. When he was done he asked his father, “What did you like best about my prayer?” His daddy told him," Well, Jackson, I think I liked it best when you told us that you wanted to sing your prayer. But I'm wondering why you thought you should sing the prayer." Jackson answered, "Daddy, Jesus just put it in my heart." Isn't a great when you know that the Holy Spirit is speaking into the heart of a child? No wonder Jesus loved the children so much.
Last night we had a party at our house. Len was telling about his grandson, Vincent. Vincent is 11 now, but at the time this happened he was three years old. Everyone bowed their heads say a prayer before the meal, and they were all looking down. Len took a little peek at what Vincent was doing, and this is what he saw. Little Vincent was searching the faces of all of his relatives who were praying. He looked up, and he looked down. When the prayer was over, he asked his grandpa, "Is Jesus in the floor?" When Len said no, he then asked why everybody was looking down, and why were they not looking up? How adorable is that? And, what a clever question! Yes, out of the mouths of babes…
Here are a couple of items that I found online of the words of children that I think you will enjoy…
Drawing God
A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God." The teacher paused and said, "but no one knows what God looks like." Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing the girl replied, "They will in a minute."
Pastor's Kids
A boy was watching his father, a pastor, write a sermon." How do you know what to say?" he asked. "Why, God tells me", the father replied. "Oh, then why do you keep crossing things out?"
I am thinking that God delights in our mistaken conclusions as we try to figure out our lives and why things are as they are. He sees our search just as we see the search of our own little ones.There are thousands of stories about the innocence of children as they look at life. I have to admit that at one time…when I was about three or four…I thought that fog actually had a horn. I had always heard the sound of the fog horn because I was growing up in Rhode Island. Trust me, there is a lot of fog in Rhode Island! I knew that there was a crash in thunder and a whoosh in wind. Lots of things in nature made sounds. Why shouldn’t fog have its own built in horn? It was an imperfect conclusion birthed in error based on some clues that seemed to me to point to fog actually having its own horn. My parents were surprised when they figured out what I believed about a fog horn. It is one of the stories of our family that are passed on.
God is collecting our stories and keeping them in a treasury of stories about His children. We are His precious creations, and like earthly parents He pays attention to the precious little things that we do. The words of our mouth must be blameless and pure. It is our job to be sure that the things we do are precious in His sight.
This brings to mind the song that the children sing…
“Jesus loves the little children
All the children of this world
Red and yellow black and white
We are precious in his sight”
Jesus loves the little children of this world.”
The Bible says…
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said:
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:2-4 (NIV)
SO HOW ARE YOU DOING?
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