As Jesus Blessed the Children

"What we teach our children is who they will become, and where man has messed up their lives, it is our kindness, our imitating JESUS, that will take away their pain."

THE PERFECTION OF LOVE is in its give-and-take, in the weaving of it from parent to child, and child to parent. From infancy into adulthood, the bond between a mother and son, a father and daughter, between child and parent is continuous. As the sun requires the sky and the air the minerals in it, as the lungs require the oxygen found in the atmosphere, and the atmosphere is shaped by clouds and drought or rain, the family grows, expands and contracts, with ages and years and seasons.

This was God’s ideal. Yet, even in Jesus’ day on the earth, He saw a need to caution about the harms done to children. Damaged children become damaged adults. Children raised in the goodness of God toward them have that foundation forever within them. See the Savior Himself, raised in Nazareth with an earthly dad who adored Him and a mother who kept all the things of His life close to her heart. See Jesus’ disciples, James and John whose father, Zebedee, blessed their leaving the family business to follow the Christ. See Jairus, synagogue leader, who sought out Jesus to rescue his dying daughter and received her back to life again. And the woman of Canaan who pled for her daughter’s healing, speaking to a Jewish Rabbi in the face of interracial criticism.

God made the family. God created adam (Hebrew), as man and woman, to conceive Abel, Cain, and Seth, and commanded them to replenish the earth, both in population and in His goodness, the plant and animal life He placed upon it.

“Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.” (Psalms 128:3-4)

God loves children. Sadly, heaven is full of them. Because of our behavior, our choices, and personal losses. Through arrogance and greed, through incorrect opinion, and outright sin and slaughter, we have sacrificed our children. Because of death on the earth and a persistent enemy, we have lost them to sickness and miscarriage, through no fault of our own. This is not God’s will for us.

Jesus blessed the children. Parents had brought theirs to Him, and those listening tried to send them away, as if He didn’t need to be bothered. Jesus stopped them from it. The Jewish blessing on the family was (is) a huge thing. As Abraham blessed Isaac, and Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, and Jacob blessed Joseph’s two sons, Jesus, representing the Father, blessed the little ones around Him. And He is our example. With our prayers, we should bless the children, born and unborn. What if our petitions to the God of life could keep that child from something which might come against them? With our words, we should bless the children, teaching them the truth of the Lord, showering upon them His love and goodness.

“For the Lord’s training of your life is the evidence of his faithful love. And when he draws you to himself, it proves you are his delightful child.” (Hebrews 12:6, TPT)

Our discipline of our children should exemplify the Father’s discipline of us, His children. As He turns us gently toward correction without fear or condemnation, so do we for these tender lives placed in our care. As we walk in faith for health and healing for ourselves, we speak the Word of God over our young ones. We teach them prayer and generosity by example. My parents are the most generous parents, and I have imitated their giving to my daughter, who is more than generous to those she knows. What we teach them is who they will become, and where man has messed up their lives, it is our kindness, our imitating JESUS, that will take away their pain.

No child should suffer pain, and Jesus gave men a warning against it. He said, In Matthew 18:10, that their angels behold the face of the Father in heaven, and we must, therefore, take heed in our behavior. He said it would be better to be drowned in the sea than to offend them. He spoke these words alongside instructions on not causing offence and the parable of the one lost sheep. How important they are then.

“How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:10-14)

Heaven rejoices when the lost sheep is found. The Father delights in the laughter of a child. He adores families, to see fathers and mothers celebrate their offspring, to see their offspring care for them when they have aged is the depth of His heart. Remember Jesus’ care for His mother, how He gave her to His beloved disciple while hanging on the cross and count the number of times in the Scriptures where a barren woman gave birth. There are many. This tug-and-pull of parent and child is what He designed life to be about, and He set Himself down in our midst to enjoy it.

The joy of the Father strengthens us, but our joy in our family blesses Him. How much greater then, Him seeing us prosper as we embrace each other. Mom and Dad. Sister and Brother. Daughter and Son.

“Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.” (1 Samuel 1:20)

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:” (Acts 2:17)

Image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com