<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nI find it helpful in understanding the love Jesus has for children to remember that I am a child of God.\u00a0 Jesus loves the little children as children, but He especially loves all who come to Him as children, regardless of age.<\/p>\n
The main point about children and their relationship to Jesus, in the context of Mark 10 and the Feast of the Holy Innocents, is that children are helpless.\u00a0 They were helpless when Herod the Great Evil came to slaughter them in a vain attempt to kill the King of the Jews, and they are helpless now to enter theKingdomofGod.<\/p>\n
The problem we have in understanding Jesus\u2019 teachings about children is that we fail to realize that we are as children before Him.\u00a0 But being adults in human terms, we don\u2019t quite like being reduced to children and being lumped together with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho then can be saved?\u201d the people ask, greatly astonished, when Jesus says how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter thekingdomofGod.\u00a0 If even the most \u201cadult\u201d among us can\u2019t be saved, those who are rich and have it made in earthly terms, then who can possibly saved?<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 answer is, \u201cWith men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.\u201d\u00a0 It is not possible for men to save men.\u00a0 If we exchanged the term \u201cinfant\u201d for \u201cmen\u201d we might more clearly see the point of how we are to come before God.\u00a0 What if we understood Jesus to mean, \u201cIt is not possible for infants to enter theKingdomofGodon their own power\u201d?\u00a0 That seems pretty obvious, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 How can an infant choose God and choose salvation, apart from the gracious work of God in his life?<\/p>\n
We understand this when it comes to infants, but when we return to the world of men and adults, suddenly we think that we are more able to come to God.\u00a0 But the truth is that we are like infants before Him: helpless, on our own, to come before Him.\u00a0 Actually, for us adults it\u2019s worse.\u00a0 An infant may be incapable by lack of intellect and understanding to come to God, but as adults we are capable of understanding God and our need for Him but still actively choose to trust in ourselves.<\/p>\n
The difference, then, between children and men, is that children know they are helpless before God, while men pretend that they are not.\u00a0 For this reason, Jesus says, \u201cfor of such is the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a word for this child-like entrance into the presence of Jesus, which is the Kingdom of God: \u201chumility.\u201d\u00a0 What children often have that adults often lack is humility, which we like to replace with pride.\u00a0 While the humility of a little child may come more naturally to him, for us adults it must be a conscious choice.\u00a0 Being less humble by human measures, we think ourselves grander and more capable than we are.<\/p>\n
But at the center of the Kingdom of God stands humility.\u00a0 The Law of the Kingdom of Man is this: \u201che who exalts himself will be exalted.\u201d\u00a0 But the Law of the Kingdom of Man is this: \u201che who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.\u201d\u00a0 This Law is the Law that the King, King Jesus, Himself chose to live by, for He made Himself of no reputation, took the form of a bondservant, came in the likeness of men, humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.\u00a0 But after so humbling Himself, the King was exalted and given the Name that is above every name, that at the name of humble Jesus every knee should bow.<\/p>\n
And now it is our turn to be humble.\u00a0 It is our turn to bow our knee before King Jesus and come before Him with humility.\u00a0 Denying self, letting go of and not considering the privileges of adulthood something to be grasped, let us come as little children before Him.\u00a0 Let us come, knowing ourselves to be helpless and loveless, and yet knowing the One who has promised to help and love.<\/p>\n
If we will only come before Him as children, then in the end He will exalt us to true maturity, which is coming to the fullness of His presence and image.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nPrayer:\u00a0 I do not presume to come into Your Presence, O Lord, trusting in my own righteousness, but in Your many and great mercies.\u00a0\u00a0 I am not worthy to gather up the crumbs under Your Table.\u00a0 But You are the same Lord who is always merciful.\u00a0 Grant me, therefore, gracious Lord, to enter into Your Presence today, where I humbly beg for Your assistance to do and receive those things I cannot do or obtain for myself; through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u00a0 Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\nPoint for Meditation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- How humble have you been in your relationship to the Lord?\u00a0 You might want to explore your faithfulness in prayer, Bible reading, public worship, good works, etc.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
- How humble have you been in relation to the people and circumstances into which God has currently placed you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Resolution:\u00a0 I resolve to find one way in which the Lord is asking me to be humble before Him and then to act humbly in this one way.\u00a0 It is likely that there is something He has been asking you to humble yourself in for a long time but which you have been avoiding, something related to a sin in your life, or a way that you have been relating to others, or a work to which He has called you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a9 2011 Fr. Charles Erlandson<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holy Innocents by Giotto \u2013 Wikipedia entry on Holy Innocents<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mark 10:13-16, 23-31 I find it helpful in understanding the love Jesus has for children to remember that I am a child of God.\u00a0 Jesus loves the little children as children, but He especially loves all who come to Him as children, regardless of age. The main point about children and their relationship to Jesus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2856,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[265,266,268,4,1531,1788],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-give-us-this-day","tag-bible-commentary","tag-bible-devotional","tag-bible-study","tag-daily-devotional","tag-meditation","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n
Feast of the Holy Innocents - Mark 10:13-16, 23-31<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible study, Bible commentary, prayer, meditation, Feast of the Holy Innocents, children, humility, Kingdom of God\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feast of the Holy Innocents - Mark 10:13-16, 23-31\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible study, Bible commentary, prayer, meditation, Feast of the Holy Innocents, children, humility, Kingdom of God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Give Us This Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-28T04:25:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/files\/2011\/12\/Holy-Innocents-by-Giotto-Wikipedia-entry-on-Holy-Innocents-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/\",\"name\":\"Feast of the Holy Innocents - Mark 10:13-16, 23-31\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-28T04:25:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-28T04:25:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407\"},\"description\":\"daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible study, Bible commentary, prayer, meditation, Feast of the Holy Innocents, children, humility, Kingdom of God\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Feast of the Holy Innocents – Mark 10:13-16, 23-31\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/\",\"name\":\"Give Us This Day\",\"description\":\"Feeding Daily on God's Word\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407\",\"name\":\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Charles Erlandson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/author\/cerlandson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Feast of the Holy Innocents - Mark 10:13-16, 23-31","description":"daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible study, Bible commentary, prayer, meditation, Feast of the Holy Innocents, children, humility, Kingdom of God","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Feast of the Holy Innocents - Mark 10:13-16, 23-31","og_description":"daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible study, Bible commentary, prayer, meditation, Feast of the Holy Innocents, children, humility, Kingdom of God","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/","og_site_name":"Give Us This Day","article_published_time":"2011-12-28T04:25:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/files\/2011\/12\/Holy-Innocents-by-Giotto-Wikipedia-entry-on-Holy-Innocents-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Fr. Charles Erlandson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Charles Erlandson","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/","name":"Feast of the Holy Innocents - Mark 10:13-16, 23-31","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-28T04:25:37+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-28T04:25:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407"},"description":"daily devotional, Bible devotional, Bible study, Bible commentary, prayer, meditation, Feast of the Holy Innocents, children, humility, Kingdom of God","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/feast-of-the-holy-innocents-mark-1013-16-23-31\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Feast of the Holy Innocents – Mark 10:13-16, 23-31"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/","name":"Give Us This Day","description":"Feeding Daily on God's Word","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/2679dc1b6b47aeb634ccb70c344a8407","name":"Fr. Charles Erlandson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db4ab3e702014c8be819dd7095f583e6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Fr. Charles Erlandson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/author\/cerlandson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/giveusthisday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/731\/2011\/12\/Holy-Innocents-by-Giotto-Wikipedia-entry-on-Holy-Innocents.jpg\" "\\"Holy")
<\/a>Mark 10:13-16, 23-31<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n