Many, many blogs ago I quoted C.S. Lewis:
"From our earliest childhoods we remember that before our own elders thought us capable of "understanding" anything, we already had spiritual experiences as pure and momentous as anything we have undergone since. ... From Christianity itself we learn there is a level -- in the long run the only level of importance -- on which the learned and the adult have no advantage at all over the simple and the child."
An illustration of this simple yet profound truth was illustrated recently when my son told me about how his four year old daughter prays. If my granddaughter is saying grace or some other prayer she begins with words similar to this: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and I love you too." I love you too? When I heard this, I felt a prompting by the Holy Spirit that something significant was being revealed to those of us who are open to the truth of what a little girl was stating as a matter of fact and as simple as you please!
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10.14-15)
When Jesus said "I tell you the truth", we had better sit up and take notice! Children have a special place in the kingdom of God. And that includes children still in the womb. (Psalm 139.13-16, Jeremiah 1.4-5). This is not an impersonal oversight of an impersonal God. An intimate and loving God even mentions the unborn child by name (Isaiah 49.1. Also see verse 5). What about unwantedness? Well, God mentions that too (Isaiah 49.15).
Do small children have an indistinct, residual, primordial inkling of that earlier intimacy with God in the womb that can not be articulated? I am not prepared to deny it.
Never discount the power of a child's prayers.
Mark
An illustration of this simple yet profound truth was illustrated recently when my son told me about how his four year old daughter prays. If my granddaughter is saying grace or some other prayer she begins with words similar to this: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and I love you too." I love you too? When I heard this, I felt a prompting by the Holy Spirit that something significant was being revealed to those of us who are open to the truth of what a little girl was stating as a matter of fact and as simple as you please! It's as though she is simply responding to what she has already been aware of and understood throughout her day. Don't miss it. We were privileged to hear half of an ongoing spiritual discussion between God and a little girl still not jaded by the world. Is it possible that she (and other children) are better attuned, in her innocence, to God's whisper of love that becomes dulled with age and cynicism? Is it possible that she (and other children) have a better understanding than their elders of what Jesus said:
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10.14-15)When Jesus said "I tell you the truth", we had better sit up and take notice! Children have a special place in the kingdom of God. And that includes children still in the womb. (Psalm 139.13-16, Jeremiah 1.4-5). This is not an impersonal oversight of an impersonal God. An intimate and loving God even mentions the unborn child by name (Isaiah 49.1. Also see verse 5). What about unwantedness? Well, God mentions that too (Isaiah 49.15).
Never discount the power of a child's prayers.
Mark
1 comments:
thank you Mark.
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