SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME

In this most tender of scenes we see the Lord Jesus reaching out to little children. Parents had brought these children to Him for His blessing. The disciples thought that this was a waste of the Saviour’s time and rebuked those who had brought the infants to Him. The Lord had a different view and the disciples ended up getting rebuked themselves.

What an important object lesson Jesus taught us all from these little ones! ‘Let the little children come to me’, He said. ‘Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God’, v. 16 ESV.

As He gently gathered these little ones to Himself, Jesus went on to explain what He meant. Anyone who does not have their kind of faith will never see heaven. Childlike faith is needed. We have often heard this phrase but what does it mean? Little children, who have been taught of their sin and the truth of a Saviour’s love for them, do not need to become adults to be saved. However, adults need to have the faith of a little child to come to Christ. How many of us have seen a little one, with full and implicit trust, throw themselves from a porch or a step into the arms of an adult? Without any qualms, they know that they will be caught, kept safe and from harm. That same explicit trust is necessary for any to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Many of us will know of little children, raised under the sound of the gospel, who have been truly saved by God’s grace at an early age. How important to ensure that they learn of the Saviour at such a tender and impressionable age. Sadly, there are those who have become hardened to the gospel as their years and their learning have increased and as the influence of the world has taken its toll.

May we encourage parents, faithfully, tenderly, prayerfully, ‘Bring your little ones under the gospel’s clear sound as early as you can’. May assembly elders encourage young parents to bring their children to every meeting that they can! Allow them to come to the only Saviour. It is these little ones, with their kind of faith, that He still gently calls.