Jesus: “Let the little children come to Me and don’t stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” http://t.co/3qM1gMUhc6

I ran across this familiar saying of Jesus by ‘accident’ this morning. On the surface, the saying seems to be almost silly. Who wouldn’t want children to come to Jesus?

The answer is as it was: adults.

Adults have a hard time accepting that we all must come to God helpless and fully dependent on His acceptance. We have substituted our ‘accepting’ God instead. Imagine what our world would be like if children had the power to pick and choose their parents. We wrongly assume it is our option whether or not to choose God.

Adults are fixated on their children providing them validation. Adults will spend thousands of dollars and countless hours of time investing in sports, the arts, toys, etc. and then gripe about having to teach their own children about God and his wonders. I often hear the saying, ‘We will just let our kids choose what to believe. As long as they go somewhere, I am ok with it.’ Everything in our world is temporary. If God is real and Jesus is the way to eternal life as He claims to be, wouldn’t it be prudent to guide children toward what lasts forever? We tell children not to smoke, not to take drugs, not to have unprotected sex, not to eat too many sweets, but remain silent regarding their relationship with Jesus?

Adults set bad examples. My mind is full of instances when I have modeled the exact opposite of a Christian man. I tremble and weep that my children evaluate the reality of God and the effect of salvation through Jesus as Lord by observing me. I have spent more than a few moments removing the obstacles I have put in front of my children (and other children as well) because of my actions and attitudes.

This is a ‘sweet saying’ with teeth that are razor-sharp.