Matthew 19:13-15
Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, "Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." When he had placed His hands on them he went from there.

will never forget that evening, when I heard about an

d took serious interest in the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time in my life. It was in an overseas Christian fellowship meeting held in a small Baptist Church in Australia and all I understood after having spent a few days with some
very special and kind Christians there, was that I could ask Jesus to become my friend and He would be a Friend like none other.

"Exactly what I need!" I thought to myself. In a country where I knew practically no one, was far away from home and family, where I did not entirely feel at home with the culture, and could not immediately identify with the locals, I was open to the idea of having a friend - it sure looked like I could use one :-) So a few weeks after that day and after a series of several other meetings with these young, energetic Christians, I got down on my knees in my small dorm room one night and asked the Lord Jesus to become my Friend. I felt a blanket of love envelope me and I wept.

I moved on after that but spent the next few months without a Bible and did not go to church because I did not know of any and did not know why I would need a bible or what church was about. I continued to spend time with Christians and figured that this was all there was to it and thoroughly enjoyed the new friends I had made. I spent my time in my room talking to the Lord as I would with a friend and poured out my fears and frustrations to Him. The Lord and I had many fun times just 'chatting' with each other. He was fast becoming my Best Friend because He always had time for me, never let me down and always stood by me and knew my inner-most thoughts. I felt like I did not need to explain myself to Him, He understood me completely and quickly.

It was not long before someone invited me to a church and while I was there, was led to someone who would spend some time with me in discipleship. It was then and only then that I received a full explanation of what the Good News of Jesus Christ was in its totality. I heard about what He had done on the cross, what its relevance was to me, how I needed to repent and confess my sins and ask the Lord to take over my life and lead me in the purposes that He has for me. Over the next three weeks or so I did all that and more and got a more solid grounding in the Word; one that could not be as easily shaken; one that was to be built on a better understanding of the character and will of God as revealed in His Word.

You are probably wondering what relevance this sharing has to the topic at hand concerning children. Well, so was I, initially :-) I was surprised myself that the Lord led me to share it and as I came before Him to seek to understand where He was leading me with this, I felt Him asking me to look for some simple parallels between my experiences as a baby Christian to that of the possible stages that a young child goes through with regards to their understanding and growth in the things of the Lord, from the first day they hear about Christ, and beyond. But first...

I have always felt drawn to children ever since I can remember and so it was not surprising that when I became a Christian, my first few serious prayers centered around the children of the world- their plights and their needs. But it was not long after this that I noticed that in prayer meetings at church, few prayers mentioned the children of the families that gathered there every week and almost nothing else was uttered about the children of the world in general. For a while I was perturbed, but it was not long after that either, that I decided that there were indeed other "more important things" to pray about too. I stopped praying for children and 'matured' in my Christian thinking - I moved on to other more serious matters that needed my fervent and immediate attention.

Unfortunately for me, my Christian maturity came at a cost; I lost the initial child-likeness and simplicity that caused me, in the first place, to see children as important individuals and a very significant part of His Kingdom. I had to repent of that and now make a more conscious effort to pray, consider and think about the spiritual lives and destinies of the children I come into contact with every week/regularly.

Sometimes, as adults, we do not fully comprehend or appreciate the need for children to hear and/or to respond to the invitation from the Lord Jesus Christ extended to them, to give their lives over to Him completely. Or perhaps we see that there is a need to tell them about Jesus but leave out some essentials thinking that children cannot possibly understand (until they reach their
pre-teen years anyway) what we seek to explain to them. We think that since it is possibly beyond their understanding, their act of receiving and responding to the invitation to receive Christ is in fact questionable and is at best incomplete. Better left for later ...much later when the child grows into greater maturity in his teenage years.

We often think that a child cannot make a fully argued and thought-through decision and so, should not as yet, hear the gospel. We may think that they have not sufficiently tasted the world to make a real decision. We sometimes think that maybe if they experience entering into the depravity of the world first and then know what they are really saved from, then and only then, will their conversion be really real. We go on to rationalize at times, that until they do experience hardship and taste a little of the world, their decision for Christ cannot possibly be meaningful.

Why do adults (myself included :-) think this way? Maybe it is because we have seen or heard of miraculous conversions of drug addicts and other criminals so we know that their decisions must be real because of the outward evidence of utterly changed lives? Therefore a child's decision for
Christ cannot be as genuine because their conversion is too simple and not dramatic enough? Perhaps only an emotionally charged response to the Lord is the best one? But we need to realize that little children can come unemotionally, but lovingly and trustingly to Jesus - and it can be just as real. It IS just as real!

We do not need to wait for children to grow up and get messed up by secular, worldly thinking before we share with them about Jesus. I do not wait for a crisis to hit the lives of my friends before telling them about Jesus. I do not need to. In fact I tell them about Jesus as soon as I get an opportunity to do so, precisely so they will be equipped to handle life's on-going challenges
and difficulties better as soon as possible.

Likewise I do not need to wait for a child to grow up and make mistakes before I share with him/her the goodness of the Lord. So when is the best time to share with them about Jesus? I believe that it should be done as soon as it is possible to do so; as soon as we have
the opportunity to do so.

The prevalent belief is that if children cannot understand the gospel, we should refrain from telling them anything altogether. One of the most commonly quoted verses in the bible says:

 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever understands (??) Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Which word does not sound right here? It is not "understanding" is it? The verse actually reads:

 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

It is about believing - believing (having faith) in Him. This is all that is important. It is impossible to please God without faith and faith often requires us to believe Him even when we do not fully comprehend. Over and over again Jesus would ask people if they believed and it was their lack of faith (not lack of understanding) that prevented the Lord from moving powerfully on their behalf.

Take a look, for example, at the early church-Paul and Silas while in prison were praising God and their chains fell off. The jailer came in and he saw these happenings and believed. The bible says that in that very hour he and his family were saved. What time did he have for understanding? ...none! He believed and with no real understanding of the Jewish Scriptures yet
(because he was Gentile) the gift of eternal life was His in Christ Jesus in that instant. Jesus spoke about time and again not about understanding, but believing. If we believe we shall receive.

If children come to him believing, they will receive in that instant, even if they do not fully comprehend yet! We can share Jesus with them now and in that one instant that they believe, (even if they do not fully understand) their response is precious to the Lord and it shall be honored and shall be watered to bear much fruit in the life of the child and of those around him/her in years to come.

But how important are children to the Lord and to His kingdom? How do they rank?;-)The disciples found out by asking Jesus a simple yet important question.

 

Matthew 18:1 - At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked," Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

It was a good question wasn't it? I would certainly have looked up quickly to see what He would do/say. Would the Lord walk into the crowd and point to a man destined for great things? Who really is the greatest today? Who really gets the closest? The Apostles? The Prophets? The Pastors? ;-) Which denomination? The Baptists, Anglicans, Pentecostals? But Jesus amazed them with his answer:

 

Matthew 18:2-5 He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said," I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

My jaw would have hit the ground :-) "A child? Become as humble as a child? Change and become as a little child? But Lord, I thought little children are meant to change to become more like me." ;-) Nope, the Lord wants us to become more like them in humility, in simplicity and in faith. Adults expect children to be grown up to be able to fully perceive but it is us the Lord desires to be more like children. They just believe and accept Jesus in their simplicity and they are highly esteemed by Him for it. We as adults have to turn and change to become as little children in our faith, it is not the other way around, never was.

But there is one age group that does not have to become as little children - it already is! Children are already as children;-) and so are already ready to receive! Would it not be tragic if God creates children with such a beautiful, simple and accepting nature and we forget all about this wonderfully receptive age group? Jesus said "Go into all the world..." - all the world includes children.

We must never forget this no matter how many other pressing matters call for our attention. We must maximize every opportunity we get to share with the children we come into contact with. We are to do it wisely and sensitively but we are not to ignore the opportunities the Lord presents us because we feel that children are not ready or are insignificant.

Some may say that adults are forcing children into something they do not really want. A child, like an adult, cannot be forced into giving their hearts over to the Lord. It is something that comes from a conviction of the Holy Spirit within. Have faith in God's ability to gently woo the young ones in our midst. He will never force Himself on any adult much less a child. The fault of the church has not been so much in forcing children to receive Christ as much as in perhaps never having given enough opportunities for them to respond to Christ and in not having taken their subsequent responses seriously enough.

We, as adults, need to be more open and available to His prompting to share with His little ones. We will see amazing things happen to children once they surrender their lives to Christ. Their simplicity causes them to pray with a boldness and seriousness that sometimes catches me off-guard ;-) He is the one who will woo them. He is the one who will water what has been faithfully sowed, He is the one who will lead them and will show Himself mighty on their behalf. We only need to obey His voice and be willing to reach out to a child who is hurting and alone when the
opportunity is there.

As I had shared earlier, when I first heard about Jesus, I accepted Him as a Friend. I did not understand anything about the Bible or the cross or the resurrection. I was unable to apply the truths of the Word into my life and did not even understand it. I did not have a Bible, neither did I immediately have a desire to obtain one. I did not understand what "Messiah" meant much less feel that I needed one in my life. I was given a very very sketchy idea of who Jesus was and who He could be in my life and I warmed up to that idea and responded simply. My 'friendship' with the Lord laid a foundation that could and would be built on.

Later, I did indeed accelerate quickly in my relationship with the Lord, when I had the gospel message explained to me in greater detail, because by that time, the Lord was already fast becoming my Best Friend :-) So repenting and trusting Him with my life was not a major obstacle for me by then. It came naturally, where previously I would have battled and kicked and would have slowed down what the Lord wanted to do in me. I did not have to understand the full gospel message before I made a commitment. I took small steps that slowly brought me to the place the Lord would have me to be ...to a place of deeper commitment. ...to a place of greater intimacy ...to a place of greater maturity in Him.

Likewise, a child may not understand or be able to fully grasp all the truths of the Word yet, but we can introduce them to the Lord Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to take it from there. By doing that, we are allowing the Lord to lay a foundation that He can build on and use in the future. If we allow one child the opportunity to hear about Jesus, then we are giving that one child an opportunity to start taking small meaningful steps in the right direction in life. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

We will always need to seek the Lord continually on how best to share with each child and ask Him to reveal to us what a child specifically needs to hear about Jesus at any one time, but we first need to be convicted that children need to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and that their responses to what they hear about Him are meaningful to them and are honored by the Lord and therefore should also be respected and be regarded as important by us.