Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World

Maybe it’s just me, tossing ‘n’ turning nowadays with specters of Monsanto Chemical, Trayvon Martin & over-stuffed Defense Budgets.   But there’s some prophetic thread running through Sunday’s readings that needs to be followed and unwoven from the world’s otherwise careless, life-is-cheap business.

The first three chapters of the Book of Hosea are an analogy of Grace, and can explain redemption and restoration and tenacious love.  This week we confine ourselves to the first introduction (1:2-10) of  The Problem:  Hosea is to marry a whore.   She then produces three children, which may or may not be sired by Hosea.  Following chapters tell about Hosea’s rejection of  this woman–and how he buys her back.  But today we dwell on the children themselves, and the counter-cultural care Hosea extends to them.  How God-like is this?   What do we do with the “questionables” of our neighborhood & world??

St. Paul exhorts the Believers at Colossae to reject the idolatry of following “philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition.” (2:8)  He reminds them & us that Christ is not only head of every ruler & authority, but that he disarmed them in a most public manner!  This resurrection –itself counter-cultural– erased our shady past and gave us a child-like start once again….  Good News fer sure!

Some worship-experiences introduce the Lord’s Prayer with the words, “Thus with the confidence of children, let us pray as our Lord Jesus taught, ‘Our Father….'”  Where else should we feel so vulnerable and intimate?  Luke’s Gospel (11:1-13) remembers not only these basics, but elaborates with the unspeakable magnanimaty of this Great Father:  “ask…seek…knock…”   And concludes, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

In Sunday School we sang, “Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world;  Red & Yellow, Black & White, they are precious in his sight:  Jesus loves the little children of the world.”  Can we do less?

God Bless Us, Every One                     H   B   King