Worship… with the Heart of a Child

Matthew 18:2-5

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

God bless the innocence of children. How often in our lives do we look back to back to a time when we were young, innocent of our wrongs, naïve in our approach to life, trusting in those who cared for us. Sometimes, at the darkest moments of our lives, we long to return to that time of innocence. We forget that God stands with us, always ready and able to see us through whatever calamity comes to us. Deuteronomy 31:8 tells us “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (NIV) No matter how dark the moment or how old we get, our Heavenly Father continues to see us as His children.

When we kneel before our God in Worship, He sees us through the redemptive eyes of His son. It is the sacrifice of Christ for our redemption that brings innocence to that moment and allows us to become childlike in the presence of our God, not given to precociousness, but to innocence and truth. That relationship of Father to child is similar to a child in the arms of their parents. There is security in that moment; security that allows us to be children in full recognition of God not at creator (even though He is), but as Father.

There is nothing more precious that being able to give one’s self over to the love of our savior, able to worship Him with joy, song, laughter, warmth, wonder and the innocence of the child within us. Just as Jeremiah came into the presence of God with the full understanding that however God was to use him would be because God was the Father and Jeremiah was His child. “I cannot speak for I am a child.” I cannot do, create, function, hold sway, guide, lead, mold or make; because I am a child. Because, we can come into a worship experience before God with the heart of a child, we can place ourselves without reservation into His hands to mold, make and develop us as His tools to reach our neighbors and a weary world. As His children, we come in worship.

First Christian Church of Fort Stockton