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Devotional


“In this, then, is God like the child: that he is simply and altogether our friend, our father—our more than friend, father, and mother—our infinite love-perfect God.”

There is a story in the Bible where the disciples of Jesus are arguing about who was the best. “I am the greatest!” said Peter. “No, I am!” said John. Sound familiar? Often times we get caught up with the idea of being better than others. To stop the disciples from arguing, and to teach them an important lesson, Jesus brought a little child to sit on his lap. It was most likely the son or daughter of Peter, who had just been arguing about who was the better disciple. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). Can you imagine the silence in the room? I'm sure the disciples were shocked. Isn't greatness measured by a man's strength? Surely, an adult would be considered greater than a child? It made no sense. But Jesus knew that the nature of God was far closer to that of the little child's than it was to the adult man. For God is whole-hearted in all He does. Think of a baby. A child cares nothing for what the world says, it simply and whole-heartedly loves. Jesus was saying that to truly be of the kingdom of heaven, we must see the childlikeness of God himself and return again to the simplicity of whole-hearted affection. Put aside the arguing and fighting, for God is whole-heartedly for you, as your father, your mother, and your more than friend. 

"Therefore, with angels and with archangels, with the spirits of the just made perfect, with the little children of the kingdom, yea, with the Lord himself... we praise and magnify and laud his name in itself, saying Our Father. We do not draw back for that we are unworthy... For it is his childlikeness that makes him our God and Father. The perfection of his relation to us swallows up all our imperfections, all our defects, all our evils; for our childhood is born of his fatherhood."  --George MacDonald, “The Child in the Midst,” Unspoken Sermons, Series One