“Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.’” – Mark 9:36-37
What is your goal in life? What do you want?
Wealth? Power? Pleasure? Honor?
The world offers us many things that masquerade as answers to our desires, but in the end, whether we realize it or not, the only thing that can fulfill us is union with God. In order to be truly happy we must conform our lives to the laws of the Lord, which often contradict the fashions of the world.
Indeed, Jesus stands directly opposed to our modern self-indulgent culture. We want to be first, but He says we must be last. We pursue power, but He says we must be “the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). We love our own lives, but He says we must lose them. Clearly, the Kingdom of God is quite different than the kingdom of man.To illustrate this paradox Jesus equates love for God with love for a child: Do you wish to know the All-Powerful? Then embrace the powerless, He says. Want to behold the Magnificent? Then care for the insignificant. Want to better understand the Father? Then get to know one of his children.
Kids help us to learn how to love unconditionally; the same way God loves us. When we love a child we cannot expect much from him or her in return. But, too often, relationships between adults fall short of this ideal. We know that other adults may have money or connections that we want to take advantage of, so we are tempted to “love” them, in part for our own gain. Sadly, this is not true love at all.
Real love seeks only the good of the other, without any kind of expectations or ulterior motives. If we can love a child who offers us nothing in return, then we have learned how to love like God and are indeed close to His Kingdom.
And therein lies the marvelous secret of the whole situation: through God’s grace man can obtain a gift far greater than he could even imagine – the Kingdom of Heaven, simply by not desiring anything for himself at all.
Heavenly Father, help us to love your children. Purify our hearts and remove all stain of selfishness from our souls. Bring us ever deeper into communion with You through the sacrifice of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
