Jesus is telling his disciples angrily and annoyedly not to create a separation between the children and him. Something about that struck a nerve with me. Nothing terrible, however. Far from it. I empathize with that frustration. I empathize with anger. Jesus focuses on having a childlike faith and a child’s curiosity when building a relationship with him. I believe there’s much more being Jesus says about that phrase: “Don’t ever get between them and me.”
Our teens and children are going through a very questionable part of their lives as they mature through the church. They are trying to establish an identity for themselves. They are trying to figure things out that even we adults have a rough time understanding. They are trying to understand why this world is so scary and why bad things continue to happen. When we deal with that, who do we run to for help? Jesus! We have the privilege of running to the Father whenever we want. We know that our Father is there to comfort us, walk with us, guide us, love us, and teach us about who He is and how we can be like him. We are taught as adult Christians to represent who God is to the world, right? To be ambassadors to represent God and the teachings he gives us. If you have any questions, I recommend reading the Salt and Light section in Matthew 5 for more clarity.
Our kids deal with judgment as they go through their early teens until adulthood. Some even have to deal with it earlier than their pre-teens, unfortunately. Everyone around them has cast some form of positive and negative judgment. These people include parents, friends, teachers, pastors, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, and church members. We have this tendency to look at someone and create this pre-conceived view of who they must be because of their external factors. People of all ages are not coming back to church because they are getting burned by people who don’t represent Christ-like love. By people who don’t seek to understand. By people who don’t meet them where they are. By people who, again, don’t show someone who Christ is.
We shouldn’t be the ones running interference. The world has enough static in it to run enough interference. Let’s learn how to interfere with the world. Let’s learn how to replace the earthly static with the clarity that Jesus shows. The signal can be precise enough for everyone to get the picture, but we have to be sure we’re not running interference.
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