|
Seeing God through the Eyes of a Child
By June Rush
Every Christian mother knows what it feels like when her child looks up at her and asks, “Mommy, Where did God come from?”
When my son was small, he was taught about God. He would listen very intently to every word I read him from the Bible or his Bible study lessons from church.
One day while we were going through one of his lessons, he asked me that question, the question about God’s existence, that I really didn’t have an answer for.
He said, “Mommy, if God made me and you and Daddy, then who made God?” I told him that God had always existed. “But how?” He wanted to know. It gets to the point that we as parents have to admit that we don’t have all the answers for our children. We don’t know how He came into existence. He has always been there since before the beginning of time.
God doesn’t expect us as His children to know all things. All He expects of us is to become like little children. Children look to their parents as a god to them, until they reach a certain age of understanding. They expect us to give them protection, heal their wounds, and take care of their every need, to feed them when they are hungry, and give them a drink when they are thirsty.
The Bible tells us in Mark 10:13-16, “People were bringing little children to Him to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them. ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never inherit it.’ And He took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”
The Bible tells us, unless we become like little children, we will never inherit the Kingdom of God. Children are teachable and begin learning from a very young age that will mold them into what God wants them to be. To see God as a little child is the beginning of our spiritual walk with God.
Luke 2:41-52, we “Every year his parents went up to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When Jesus was twelve years old they went up to the feast (according to the custom). After the feast was over while his parents were returning home, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking He was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among relatives and friends. When they did not find Him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him. After three days they found Him in the temple courts sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers. When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this?’ Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. ‘Why were you searching for me, he asked?’ ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’”
When a child is learning to walk he is unstable and falls over and over again. He never stays where he falls, but picks himself up and starts all over again. After awhile the falls become less and less. The same is true with us as parents. We fall in our spiritual lives, but instead of quitting, we have to start anew.
Luke 2:52, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.”
We, as parents, are to set the right example for our children, teaching them the right Godly principles with love and compassion, teaching them to put others’ needs before their own and to love everyone, regardless of who he may be or what church he attends. The fathers need to be there while their children are growing up to set an example of how the children should treat their mother and show respect for her, as she does him. Then when they grow up they will treat their own mates with love and respect. Pray together as a family, live, laugh and love each other. Think of the others’ needs before your own.
God promises us He will never leave or forsake us. Are you as a child of God growing in knowledge of His Word and teaching it to your children? The Bible says to, “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” He may go out when he is young and become part of the world, but he will always return to the basics of what his father and mother have taught him. Are you as parents putting all your trust in the Lord, just as your little child does in you? Or are you falling short of this responsibility that God has given you? Our children are on loan to us, they really belong to God.
Learn to love and trust in God as your little child trusts in you. Become a reflection of Him, so your child can be a reflection of you. After all God is the greatest parent that will ever exist. i
|
