Matthew 23:37-39
Gathering His Children
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Matthew 18:2-4
Being Like Little Children
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Right before Jesus died He was still thinking about us...Wanting to gather us up as His little children, " as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and we are not willing...Look, your house is left to you desolate...For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."...Jesus had to leave the earth to go back to His Father...That was a part of God's Plan...
In these verses we see Jesus seeing us as children He wants to protect...Somehow in our young and formidable years, when we are children we slowly become adults...Our thoughts somehow mysterious leave our childhood and we start thinking more adult-like and have more and more mature thoughts...As we grow in age the maturing process takes place...It seems that our child-like thoughts moving to adult-like thoughts in a gradual process over a period of just a few years and we do not notice it...It is, as if, we wake up one morning and the child in us has left us, and the little child we were is now gone...Our childhood may pass in fits and starts, but when we come an adult we generally recognize it...The great curiosity of the world seems somewhat less important now, and we must get on in our lives and thinking, and about coming responsible...A lot of the mystery of the world has left us and now I must think about work and the future...I was becoming an adult, and became an adult...I had never gave my part time jobs and my future much thought until now...The once everything new in the world type thinking had left me, and was replaced with a responsible mindset...For me personally leaving my childhood, life felt more serious, more responsible, and more structured...I am not sure when my naivety left me, but when it was gone, I felt different...And I could not remember much about my childhood years as I grew older...Becoming more reasonable, more logical, more responsible, and a full time job was ahead of me...
Adulthood can lead us into a lot of different temptations, unless we follow Jesus' advice...
What to me is interesting in all this process of growing up and feeling older is that Jesus tells us we need to change back and be like little children again...Jesus said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."...Jesus wants to protect us as His children...When we are poor as a child, we often do not even recognize it...He does not want us to desire authority, and seek fame -be like a child, in that respect...He wants us to work and play with everyone peacefully...He wants us to stay humble as children do...He wants us to turn away from the proud as children do...The Kingdom of heaven loves the attributes of the least, the humble, the non-proud, love, caring for all, and peace with others...