The Kingdom of God

Hello, friends. Thanks for joining us for today's reading from the Our Daily Bread devotional. John Blaise is today's writer.

He's titled it The Kingdom of God. My mother has been committed to many things over the course of her life, but one that has remained constant is her desire to see little children introduced to Jesus. Of the few times I've witnessed my mother display disagreement publicly, all were when someone attempted to cut a children's ministry budget in favor of what they felt were more serious expenditures.

I took one summer off when I was pregnant with your brother, but that's it, she told me. I did a little family math, and I realized my mom had been working with children in the church for fifty-five years. Mark 10 records one of the enduring stories in the Gospels commonly titled The Little Children and Jesus. People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch and bless them, but the disciples tried to prevent this from happening. Mark records Jesus as indignant and rebuking his very own disciples, saying, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Charles Dickens wrote, I love these little people, and it's not a slight thing when they who are so fresh from God love us. And it's not a slight thing when we, who are older, do all we can to make sure the little children are never hindered from the ever-fresh love of Jesus.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading comes to us from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verses 13 through 16. People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on 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. Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them, and blessed them.

Let's pray. Jesus, you called the little children to come to you to show that your kingdom is open to all people and that one simply needs to have a childlike faith for it to be revealed to them. We pray for those who don't know you in a personal way, and today we ask that you would break through the wall in their mind that keeps them from seeing you. May they come to you with the humble, trusting dependence of a child. Thank you, Lord. It's in your merciful name that we pray. Amen.