“Whoever won’t receive the Kingdom of God like a little child most certainly won’t enter into it.” (Mark 10:15)
Parents brought their children to Jesus, and the children rushed up to touch him.
The disciples said, “Control your kids,” but this only annoyed Jesus.
He took the children in his arms and laid his hands on them and blessed them.
Jesus wants us to be like children so we can receive the Kingdom.
When we receive the Kingdom, the Kingdom receives us and we enter in.
Children are direct. In their innocence and harmlessness and simplicity, they rush up and take hold of your hand.
We are to come to Jesus in the same childlike spirit.
In our immaturity, we really are like children. Let’s own our immaturity by acting with the impulsive affection of a child.
We approach Jesus not pretending to be anything great, good, holy, or wise, but just as we are. Jesus can handle us. We are not too much for him.
Children are open because there is space in their hearts for the world and all its people. They rush up to the world to receive it.
As we get older, we become suspicious, and the spaciousness in our hearts turns into a cramped and derelict emptiness.
Invite Jesus into your emptiness.
He will enter. With him he will bring his commitment to doing his Father’s will.
And wherever the will of the Father is done, the Kingdom has come.
Let the Kingdom enter your heart and fill its emptiness. Let the Kingdom within you be a joy and everlasting delight to you. Let it give you the strength to live with open-hearted health and integrity.
Only remember that we cannot receive what we reject.
Whenever we approach the Kingdom with dishonesty or self-importance or self-righteousness, the Kingdom finds no place in our hearts. We have rejected its whole childlike ethos and remain outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment