The Grace Street Blog

“But Jesus called the children to Him and said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’” – Luke 18:16-17

One of my favorite shows is called “The Goldberg’s“. It is usually what I play in the background while I cook or clean. But after watching so many episodes back to back, I started noticing a trend.

The show, if you aren’t familiar, is about a family consisting of the parents and 3 kids (2 boys and one girl). Every episode ends with a “moral of the story” type of revelation that is pretty wholesome. And last week, I began noticing repeating behavior between the kids and parents. Though no characters are perfect, of course, there always seems to be an apology that the kids realize they need to give to their parents (most of the time, it’s the mother).

And regardless of how the kids act, Beverly, the mother, always accepts the apologies without her love for them ever being tainted. The kids could reject her again and again, but every episode, without fail, she pours out her love on her kids. Now, she is not perfect either, but her forgiving love just brought me to a halt in my cooking and cleaning.

I could not help but reflect on the way these kids knew that no matter what, they would always be accepted. This didn’t negate their wrongdoings, but it most certainly gave them the confidence to apologize and run back to their parents again and again.

The other day, I heard someone mention Luke 18:15-17 and use it to support the idea that we ought to run to God with “blind faith” like children would. Though I do believe faith is in the unseen things, as Hebrews 11:1 states, I do not believe that scripture was intended to call us to put our confidence in something without any reason, or rather “blindly“. I choose to believe in God because I have witnessed Him being faithful to the character He claims throughout the Bible and to the promise of His never ending love and grace. Seeing the reality of how damaging my sin is, I am confident that there is no other sustainable way than a life surrendered to the rescuing of the cross and resurrection.

As I sat with those thoughts from the show and from Luke 18, I think I have a glimpse of what “receiv[ing] the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” might also mean.

Beverly has shown her abundant love for her kids since their birth. The show portrays her as embarrassing sometimes because of the extent to which she goes to show affection to her children. Though to any teen, “embarrassing” is a common perspective, to a child, that love develops a place of refuge and security for them. A little child with a loving, supporting, listening, and present parent often does not reject their love because peer pressure hasn’t reached it’s peak yet and more than anything, they feel safe in it.

This, I would argue, is perhaps what Luke 18:15-17 is referencing here. The little children run to Jesus without a marred perspective due to peer pressure, deep heartbreak, or anything else this world may scar them with over the years.

They may not be as academically educated as others in the crowd, but they have two things that others have grown to struggle expressing because of fear or pride; trust and love.

C. Marvin Pate captures this concept beautifully as he says, “Not only did Jesus welcome these little human beings as members of the kingdom of God; He also extolled them as model citizens of the same, because of their capacity to trust and love.”

I am deep into the series of “The Goldberg’s” and though Beverly expresses hurt from the rejection, she never allowed that to stop her.

If that is just a TV show, how much more abundant and deep is the love of our God? The God who’s love meant sacrificing and being hurt for the sake of us rebuilding the relationship we broke.

Accepting the love of God was something I struggled deeply with for years. After seeing how worthy God was of our lives, I focused on surrender, discipline, obedience, and sharing the Gospel. But living loved was something I believed was unattainable for myself.

Assuming that receiving was a selfish thing to do, after all the hurt I must’ve caused God, I lived unable to claim a new identity beyond broken and sinful.

Despite the pain I constantly felt, I didn’t believe I needed to change. Until one day I realized that the longer I identified with my old self, the longer I prevented to acknowledge God’s power and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus did not just die on the cross to cover the debt of our sin, He rose from the grave that we were supposed to spend eternity in. Every chain and stronghold that would have held us there forever, was broken by the power of our God driven by love.

A child does not naturally try to work to repay or earn the love their parents offer. The refuge they find in them is not because they think they deserve it every time, but because they are confident in the open arms of their parents who has been faithful and available in every moment.

My dear friend, I know not everyone can relate to a child with loving and supporting parents. But may the brokenness of humanity not ruin your perspective of our God. His ways are far more loving, compassionate, consistent, and dependable than even the best of parents on Earth. Running to God as a child is not doing so because of any sort of pride in yourself, as if you deserve it or do not need it, but because a child knows they cannot live without it. So may we take joy as we “let the children come to [Jesus]”, and perhaps we too will find ourselves running alongside them.

Thoughts to Consider:

What makes you hesitate to run to God like a child, believing His arms are open?

Could the way your parent-figures treated you be impacting your perspective of God’s love?

Who is someone you could be praying for that is struggling to believe God is calling them towards Him with compassion and forgiveness?

Consider the greater love you could show others as you embrace the new, redeemed identity God calls you by.

“But Jesus called the children to Him and said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’” – Luke 18:16-17