Like a Child
Jesus has a very special love for children. In Luke 18: 15 – 17, there as an account where some people were bringing children to Jesus so that He could touch them. But when the disciples saw this, they the tried to turn them away. But Jesus called the children to himself and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
Recently, during the season of lent, some of the members of GRACE Music Ministry – of which I am a member – had the great joy of visiting the St. Gabriel’s Girls Roman Catholic School here in Trinidad, as part of their Lenten program. This was the second time we visited that school to share Christ with them. Well, after our encounter with them last year, I was not too sure who was on retreat; whether it was the girls at the school or us from the Music Ministry. I have never encountered such a beautiful lot of children all together in one place in my life. After the encounter last year, I could not stop talking about these children. The one disappointment I had last year was that I did not walk with my camera nor my camcorder. You see, I had no clue where I was going nor the age group of the children we were going to encounter. Needless to say, I looked forward to our planned visit this year with great anticipation and excitement. This time, I made sure that I walked with my camcorder. Can you image that in this day and age, when our children are being branded as “generation-X”, or a lost generation and all that is negative, I asked these children what it is they need. I was pleasantly surprised to hear their responses. Play the video clip below to find out why.
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Can you imagine that in this day of technology and computers and WII and all the other things that children would normally have and want, that was not on the list of any of these children. God is definitely at work in the lives of these children. The teachers at the school are doing a fantastic job with the children. Something remarkable happened that day. The last child I spoke to said she wanted peace. So I hugged her and said to her, “peace is your.” A couple seconds after that, a white pigeon flew over. None of us realized this until I was reviewing the footage taken. We believe that that little girl’s prayer for peace was answered, and God was showing us the sign.
One of the images that remains etched in my mind is from the our first visit to St. Gabriel’s, when as we praised God in song, these children and their teachers sang and dances like I’ve never seen before, and I was moved almost to tears when I saw one of the teachers embraced a couple of the children so tenderly, as if they were her very own.
For me, this experience is one of tremendous hope for our world. It shows very clearly what can happen when we do things according to God’s plan. I pray that these videos will challenge parents, teachers, adults to do our very best to make sure that the little one in our midst are raised to know, love and serve God.
But Jesus called the children to himself and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
{youtube width=”600″ height=”384″}CYejRvWjSiw[/video]
