Praise the Lord for this Friday. He blessed us with an awesome week of Vacation Bible School. The week has been bright and sunny and not too hot. It was almost perfect weather for the week of VBS. Praise the Lord for all the children who came for the VBS. Praise the Lord for the wonderful and dedicated VBS staff. It is a great joy loving the Lord and serving Him. I was talking with our daughter Sunita, this morning. She reminded me, "Daddy, we serve Jesus when we serve and love children". It was a great blessing to the children to learn about Jesus who makes them strong. It was great to see the unadulterated joy in their hearts and countenances as they sang, as they danced, and as they made a joyful noise to Jesus, the Shepherd of all His little lambs around the corner and around the globe. Once again I praise the Lord for all those servants of Jesus who invest their time, talents, and treasures in the lives of children. It is recorded in Mathew 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. These are some of the simplest words Jesus ever spoke. Only hard hearts would not be moved by them. Parents were bringing their children to Jesus. The disciples, however, were reluctant to let the children come near. How typical this is, how very modern! We get so task-oriented and so busy saving the world that we don’t want the children to bother the Savior. Our Lord is indignant at those who would keep children away from Him. It is Christ-like to love children, to care for them, to welcome them, and to embrace them. It is like Jesus to become indignant at those who would mistreat them.
Jesus is
the little child’s best friend.
Wherever the gospel goes . . . it honors
families . . . it ennobles motherhood . . . it protects and preserves the place
of children. Where Christ is known, trusted, and
followed infancy is sacred and children are safe.
I am
captivated by my grandchildren. Or perhaps I should say, “They have captured my
heart,” and they did it without even trying. I will
do whatever I can to help them. They don’t have to ask
me. So I think about my daughters and
now about my grandchildren.
They are never far from my mind, and no one has to remind me
to think about them. Even as I write these words, there is
something inside that I feel, a kind of love, concern, fear, and joy all mixed
up together. But if I, a very imperfect father and
grandfather, feel that way about my children and grandchildren, how much more
does God love them. If my children are precious to
me, if my grandchildren mean so much to me, do they mean any less to God? They are far more precious, for
he sends his angels to watch them while they sleep. Sometimes
when I’m busy, I don’t think about them. But the Lord never forgets.
Our God sees and knows all the little children of the world. Every time we move with love and compassion on behalf of the children, born and unborn, we are doing that which is dear to the heart of God. The Lord Jesus is on the side of those who love little children. And we are on his side when we stand up for them. Our children can teach us so much.
Dr. Thomas Elkins writes poignantly
from his own personal experience:
“We look at our own child, Ginny, who has Down syndrome, and see our own limitedness. She shows us love even when we, at first, were not totally accepting of her. These kids love us until we begin to love them back. And by loving them, we learn a whole new definition of love-something very akin to grace.”
Our
children teach us that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved. Love is deeper
than that. You don’t have to have a spotless record. You can be
the world’s biggest failure, and still you are loved. That’s grace!
In Christ
our Lord,
Brown
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