"But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
~Matthew 18: 6
~Matthew 18: 6
Yesterday, I enjoyed my fifth Easter Egg hunt of the year with my daughter and wife. What a blast. Kids all over the place, and not a hidden motive among them. If they were pushing each other out of the way, it was easy to see some simply didn't have an altruistic thought in their little heads. Our daughter definitely struggles (like most three-year-olds) with the idea of giving someone else the last egg.
One of my wife's friends attended the event with her two little boys. Although one boy was stroller-bound, the other was off to the races. Once the egg hunt started, the mother was torn between staying with the stroller, or redirecting her toddler as he attempted to climb the tree in the middle of the egg-hunt area. I stayed with the stroller as she ran off to pull junior from the base of the tree.
As I dropped to face-level with the little man in the stroller, I could see his wonder at who had entered his world. I wasn't dad, and I certainly wasn't mommy with a hat on.... He was beautiful. As we quickly forged a friendship through unintelligible words and tickles, I was taken aback by how easy it was to love the little rascal. The best part was, all he wanted was to be loved. I didn't have to know the right words, the right actions, or even his favorite colors-I just needed to look at him transparently enough for him to understand I meant him no harm and only wished his happiness. How does an infant understand this?
It just goes to show how simply love is expressed when we start from a position of transparency. In approaching a child, we truly lose all inhibition and self-consciousness and offer whatever our heart harbors without reservation. Knowing our society, this also has terrible implications, but helps us understand Christ's words when he says, "...unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
In the presence of children, we are terribly vulnerable. Whatever our heart harbors comes frightfully close to the surface. Humanity's best and worst actions are played out through our interactions with "...the little ones..."
What a great place to check my motives and the state of my heart. Lord, thank you so much for children and an understanding of how you see us. I pray I would love more transparently.
