The Children

“From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.”
Psalm 8:2

Language of a little child:
“Daddy, doesn’t God love us as much as Jesus does?”

And you the parent ask:
“How could you raise that question?  How could you ask that?”

The child replies:
“Well, Jesus is pleading with God to forgive me for the things I did wrong today, so I know who’s on my side!”

At a tender age, children acquire a sense of knowledge that surprises us older adults.  Though their appearance may be naïve and uneducated, statements and episodes like the one quoted above bring the parent generations to their knees in awe.  How can a child of so few years of age arrive at a summary of religious thought like that? 

What has transpired in the teachings of Christianity for children to sense that God is a person to fear, that he’s not a very friendly God?  Oh, everyone knows how kind and gentle Jesus is, and how he is our friend who has shed his blood so the Father will accept us and forgive us.  The younger generation has always known how nice Jesus is and how he wants children to climb upon his lap so he can put his arms around them.  Youngsters know that Jesus is always smiling and that he has a wonderful disposition, that he is the embodiment of love, that he will always be there when needed, that he wants to be part of your life, that he would never do anything to harm anyone. 

But look out for God!  He is watching every move you make, and when you mess up just a little bit, he writes it down in his little black book where a permanent record is kept.  Every time you do something wrong you can expect some kind of retribution because God’s justice requires him to take the necessary steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  When it does though, God will discipline you, but it’s for your own good!  When anything worse does happen again by chance, you can always count on Jesus to make things right with God by accepting the punishment you deserve.  Jesus will even die because he loves you so much! 

With this kind of attitude it comes to the point where people are more afraid of God than they are of Satan, the devil.  With Jesus by their side, he over-rules anything Satan can do, and with Jesus by their side, they will never have to be afraid of God!  It’s such an unfavorable picture of God the Father to say that he is not as friendly or forgiving or understanding as Jesus, his Son.  The relationship between Jesus and his Father was clearly outlined and demonstrated when Jesus said: “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”

Always remember:

Satan, the devil, is the enemy! God is on our side!!

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