Mark 10

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this chapter of Mark.  I thought about the children that were brought to Jesus.  Parents just wanting Jesus to touch to them.

I thought about how this bothered Jesus’ followers and how they tried to keep them away.  Why?

Why are we so dismissive of children?  Why were they?  Why were they so dismissive of the parents or those who brought the children there?  I don’t know. 

I feel like it’s more gatekeeping.  Did they think children weren’t smart enough?  Good enough? Worthy enough? To be around Jesus?  Did they think the children and their parents were a bother? 

Jesus noticed this happening and told them to let the little children come to him!  He took them in his arms and placed his hands on them and blessed them. Jesus found them worthy, good enough, smart enough.  He didn’t see them as a bother.  He understood the parents desire to have their children near him.

He said, “Do not hinder them, for it is to the childlike that the realm of God belongs.  I tell you, unless a person receives the realm of God like a child, they will not enter it at all.”

This is where the children’s song Jesus Loves the Little Children comes from.   Many of us grew up singing it and then taught our kids to sing it.  

“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.
 Red, brown, yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. 
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

We sing it, we teach it, but do we live it?

Jesus tells us to receive the realm of God like a child, or we will not enter it at all.

As I watch the news, there are many among us not living it and yet there are so many who are!

I see the mother’s in Minnesota protecting the children, delivering food, walking them to and from school, standing watch over them to try to keep them safe.  

I also see ICE agents detaining children.  Pulling teens out of cars, dragging them out of their workplaces, throwing them to ground, not seeing Jesus in them just because of the color of their skin, their accent, their language.  Most of the time, their skin tone is closer to Jesus’ than mine.  They are not seen as precious at all.

As I lay in bed awake in the wee hours this morning, I thought of my red, brown, yellow and black friends.  I remembered when I was younger wanting a friend to come spend the night and not understanding why her mom was so worried about her coming to our neighborhood.

I remembered years later when my son wanted his friend to come play and go to church with us and his father coming to check out our home and ask that I speak with our pastor before allowing him to come.  I remember talking to my pastor and the shock I felt as he sadly told me he wasn’t sure that some of the people in our church would welcome the child.  It never occurred to me that would be the response!  I went home in shock, angry beyond words.  The young man was always welcome in our home, but my heart was broken over our church, where we sang that song each Sunday.  It wasn’t the pastor’s fault, he was sad to admit it, but he wanted to protect the child.

As these memories flooded my mind, I was saddened again.  I thought of Jesus’ words over and over.

“I tell you, unless a person receives the realm of God like a child, they will not enter it at all.”

I didn’t know my friend was different from me, neither did my son.  I think we were right that they aren’t, but we were also raised in white privilege and hadn’t experienced racism, hadn’t experienced the fear of not being accepted, of being abused, based on the color of our skin.

Then I remembered a video I recently watched that said kids are the biggest reminder that no one is born with hate.  It showed kids of all shades playing with people, young and old, of all shades.  Happy, laughing, loving.  It’s a beautiful video.  There are tons of them.  One said, “Children don’t see borders, colors, or “us vs. them”. They just see friends.   Racism isn’t born, it’s taught.” 

And these videos are glimpses of the realm of God.  I know I keep harping this, and well, I’m going to continue to do so.  

When Jesus says, “unless a person receives the realm of God like a child, they will not enter it at all,” he’s talking about here, right now.  Not some far off place in the heavens that we can only get to in death.  It’s for the living!  It’s all about how we live our lives today, loving, caring, helping, serving.  

Unless we find our childlike selves again, unless we learn to love and accept all, we will not enter the realm of God, we will not see it.  

The end of the chapter brings us to a blind man.  He calls out to Jesus and the people try to shush him, but Jesus hears him and calls for him to come.  Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”  And the man replies, “I want to recover my sight.”

May that be our prayer, to recover our sight, our childlike vision so that we too may enter the Realm of God.

May we live our lives in such a way that not only do we see and enter the Realm of God ourselves, but that we BE the realm of God to all those around us.

Until next time…♥️