Little Children - Matt 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17

Three of the gospels all record groups of people bringing their children to Jesus “that he should put his hands on them and pray.” All three gospels also record that “the disciples rebuked them,” but only the JST of Mathew 19:13 has the disciples rebuking the parents “saying, There is no need, for Jesus hath said, such shall be saved.” Kind of like “hey save Jesus’ time for the rest of us who are actually accountable for our sins.” There isn’t a whole lot about these verses in the IM other than the JST, but we know how the story goes because it’s the same thing every time, the kids want to see Jesus, the grown ups say no, then Jesus answers, “suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” We know that Jesus loves children, but why? Maybe because they aren’t jaded or cynical or angry all the time. Interestingly, yesterday in church we had a teachers training and in the meeting someone mentioned that when Christ was in the Americas, he blessed each child one by one. They then said that one of the reasons why there were generations of peace afterward was because as the little children grew older, they remembered what it was like to be touched by the Savior, and they taught it to their children. If Jesus had only interacted with the adults, then the power of his influence would have been lessened by that whole generation.

Luke records Jesus also teaching, “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little children shall in no wise enter therein.” I know that we’ve discussed before about what it means to be as a little child in the kingdom, but let’s just do a little recap. Some of the characteristics of children are innocence, and I know that we’ve talked about how an adult who has done many wrong things can become innocent again. Through repentance and a change of heart, ungodly things can become repulsive to us. We can recoil at things that we once found acceptable, even entertaining, that’s how we regain our innocence, through repentance.

Little children are teachable. They don’t have years and years of hardship making them bitter and angry and set in their ways. But what do we do as adults who do have those attitudes? How can we become teachable? Through repentance, we can be healed, as we try to keep the commandments, we open ourselves up to something that we don’t already know, we use faith to motivate us. It’s that openness towards God that helps us return to a child like state of trust and humility.