I will be so glad when I finally get to go home tomorrow and stay home. Next week I get to work in Stockton instead of Fresno or Bakersfield. I really miss Marilyn, Alicia, Lily and the rest of my family when I’m gone for weeks at a time. Especially Lily. I can’t believe how much I miss her. Even though she’s beginning to “push the envelope” and exercise a bit of independence and throw minor tantrums, she is still delightful to be around. I think what delights me the most about her is the absolute love and trust she places—without even knowing it—in those of us who are entrusted with her care, which reminds me of Matthew 18:5—“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me. . . .”
The citizens of heaven are like children in all the delightful things of children - in the joy, exuberance, unbounded enthusiasm - in the willingness to make fools of themselves to amuse others and to amuse themselves, in the unbridled love of life that takes hold and whisks the child and the person caring for the child into an entirely new world view.
Whoever consents to receive a child into their hearts in the name of Jesus receives Jesus. When we care for a child who would otherwise have no life, no home, we receive Jesus. When we pray for the unborn that they are brought to life, we receive Jesus. When we encourage desperate single mothers, or lonely young teens who find themselves abandoned by all - we receive Jesus.
That’s why participating in any way you can in 40 Days for Life is important and I daresay obligatory. When Jesus dwells with us, when we receive Him as a child, we cannot help but share Him, generously and completely and from the heart. When we become children for Jesus, we are willing to be seen as fools for love of Him. And if we carry this enthusiasm into the world, if we show the joy of our love and our presence in Christ, we will fill the world with wonders and transform it.
Just as taking the hand of a child and seeing the world from the child's point of view transforms your own world, with the heart of a child, you can transform the world of others as you show them the love that Jesus shows you. Become a child for Christ, serve Him and celebrate Him with all the joy you can find within you, and gather others to you and let them feel that warmth and that joy.
Come to Jesus as a child and you will be more of an adult than you ever have been. You will know greater maturity in faith than you have ever known. And better, you will learn to live again.
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