Blessed are...

Like a Child

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

It is as children that we inherit the Kingdom of heaven, not as adults, careful of our rights, but as little children, for whom every good thing comes as a gift. When parents brought their children to Jesus, that He might touch them and bless them, the disciples were indignant and tried to push them away. Jesus would have none of it. “Let the children come to me,” He said, “and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”[1]

We like to think that it was the innocence of the children that endeared them to Jesus. We tell ourselves that, if only we could recapture the same wide-eyed innocence, then we could inherit the Kingdom. The problem is that we are not innocent. Neither were the children. We are all marked by the consequences of Adam’s shame. We all “fall short of the glory of God.”[2] It is not innocence that will save us. We’re all out of innocence.

Jesus commended the children as worthy of the Kingdom not because of their innocence, but because of their knowing dependence. Mark called them ‘little children.’ They were probably not much more than toddlers. They could not feed themselves, or care for themselves. Left to their own devices they would die. And so would we – eternally. Our spiritual poverty is actually a source of blessing, in that it forces us into the arms of the only One who can save us. “How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us,” writes John, “that we should be called children of God.”[3]


Father God,
As a child I come, trusting and eager,
ready to run into Your sheltering, waiting arms,
anxious to receive Your blessing.
As a child, keep me coming, listening and learning,
growing in Your grace,
anxious always to be a bearer of the blessing of Christ.
In His name.
Amen.


[1] Mark 10:14-15
[2] Romans 3:23
[3] I John 3:1