He called a little child and had him stand among them (Matthew 18:2) NIV

It’s easy to love a child if one looks at the things they say with such bright-eyed innocence. It simply melts the heart. A good friend recently forwarded the following quirky sayings and inquisitions by children (and you are welcome to add your own at the end of the post):

• A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. ‘Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle.’

• A Police Officer relates the following: “While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, ‘Are you a cop?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered and continued writing the report. ‘My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?’ ‘Yes, that’s right,’ I told her. ‘Well, then,‘ she said as she extended her foot toward me, ‘would you please tie my shoe?’

• An Officer from the Canine Unit finds himself being interrogated: “It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station.. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. ‘Is that a dog you got back there?’ he asked. ‘It sure is,’ I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, ‘What’d he do?’”

• A parent relates the following: While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, ‘The tooth fairy will never believe this!’

• What the Pastor overheard his son say: “While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister’s son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: ‘Glory be unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes.’”

• Reflection after the first week at school: A little girl had just finished her first week of school. ‘I’m just wasting my time,‘ she said to her mother. ‘I can’t read, I can’t write, and they won’t let me talk!’

• The Living Word: A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. ‘Mama, look what I found,’ the boy called out. ‘What have you got there, dear?’ With astonishment in the young boy’s voice, he answered, ‘I think it’s Adam ‘s underwear!’

• On breaking the traffic rules: “I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, ‘Mom, that lady isn’t wearing a seat belt!’“

When we look at Jesus’ interaction with children one gets the impression that wherever He was, there were always children nearby.  His love must have had tremendous drawing power, and the children certainly must have sensed His sincere love. When Jesus wanted to teach His disciples a lesson, we see Him calling a child, or taking child in His arms and allowing the child to stand among them to teach His lesson. We don’t see Him asking the disciples to go and find a child somewhere so He could teach them. It seems the children were always close to Him.

Jesus went further than just letting a child stand there to teach others a lesson. He took them in His arms. He blessed them and He said that a person who causes grieve and sin to come to a little child would be better off if he had not been born, because even being drowned with a large millstone (which weighs about 1 ton) around his neck, would be a better punishment than the punishment awaiting such a person. He warned His followers by saying that we must see to it that we don’t look down on one of these little ones because their angels in heaven are always in the presence of His Father (Matthew 18:10). Jesus loves the little children and He takes the way we treat them very seriously. May we follow His perfect example of showing them love, blessing them, hugging them and never allowing anyone to reject them:

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16 NLT

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