Ask yourself, What breaks my heart that breaks the heart of God? Consider passages of Scripture that talk about what breaks God’s heart. Then consider, What disadvantaged, overlooked person or group of people’s condition do you find heartbreaking?
This morning my heart goes out to children and youth. For all the attention that both groups seem to receive, I ache when I see how little they learn about God's love. "Let the little children come to me" are the words of this God. Childhood and youth are the places where innate trust or distrust of God are formed.
For all the lessons and classes and "education" that our children receive, they ache to see adults who are living as God's children themselves. I look around and look back on my own childhood experiences and have to agree with Rich Mullins when he sings, "I heard so much of the dribble, it's a wonder I can think." I was immersed in a world hiding from God. I see children and youth caught in the same world where the greatest injustice is that they are not taken to the Lord's loving arms. Actually, they are even prevented from finding him.
For this Jesus said one of his strongest statements. "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." I do not think he was only talking about children and youth, but I think that they were certainly included and even highlighted in the statement. It is one reason that, even with my own children, I remind them at times not to look to me always, but remember that "God alone is good." I pray for mercy for where I fail them and for grace for them to find the Lord in their own lives.
So I ache for children and their parents and teachers. I long for them to know just how serious the responsibility is for letting the children come to Jesus. If all things were equal, if this world were not what it is, children and youth might "find their way" on their own. But since the world is a trap, Satan is alive and well, and hearing God and trusting him is not instinctual but sought, acquired, and learned, our children and youth need to hear the words "Let the little children come to me" and they need to see adults running to him as well. Besides, one of the greatest joys in life is leading little ones into the arms of Jesus. It reminds me that my place is there as well.
Because I long for the children to come, I find myself teaching them and trying to remind and encourage their parents to do the same. I long to share not because I have the answers, but because I know how much help children and parents and teachers need to face the obstacles in this present evil age. We must not lose our focus on the sufficiency of Christ nor the hope that our children can live in that sufficiency. In comparison to this hope and faith, nothing else matters! Without it our children are lost as much as we are ourselves.
I say all this to express my concern for those I consider "overlooked." It is ironic that so much attention can be given to youth and children and yet somehow what is most important be left out. This speaks about our own hearts more than anything else. For myself, it speaks to how I raise my family, but also to how I lead or take other children and youth either into Jesus' arms or away from them. The children are his - consecrated and set apart - I am merely a steward set to watch over them for a short while.
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