Online Bible Verses - Matthew 19:14 - Let the little children come to me

“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.””

Matthew 19:14

Why does heaven belong to “such as these”, these being little children? Because, in a fundamental way, the mind that knows God is a childlike mind.

When I heard about God as a little one, did I find the notion unobjectionable simply because I was told so, or did it seem acceptable following analysis within my little mind? To the best of my recollection, the latter case applied. In observing blue sky, sun, birds, the Susquehanna River and like beauty found in nature, it seemed quite probable to me that God had simply put it there. It also made good sense God loved me. My mom was always holding and hugging me, quite obvious I was loved. Why not God? If He made all the pretty stuff and my mom loved me, why not Him as well?

It just made sense. Until my science teacher stood before me and spoke of apes being my ancestors, I never seriously considered anything other than direct creation. My childlike mind was now being shaped by the world and those in it, as opposed to the simple evidence I had based conclusion on prior.

And as I got older, scripture became more fairy tale than faith based/anticipated and hoped for probability. Jesus and Santa Claus became more aligned with each other. My ancestors had indeed become apes; had to be that way if the smart guys said so.

Things changed the hard way over time, and my mind became childlike once more. A miracle of sorts I would think. 1994. Here I was, sitting in Mr. Rutherford’s Bible class at a school called Florida Christian, where I had just taken a job. The beginning of a physical, mental and spiritual reconstruction project. God had placed me there for good reason. I sat and listened to Rutherford speak of a young earth, dinosaurs running around less than 10,000 years ago, a great flood, layers of sediment deposited in minutes as opposed to millions of years …… So as not to embarrass him, I pulled him aside after class and explained how ridiculous these notions were, especially to a degreed engineer with masters level training in one of the most difficult technical programs in the military. Surely he needed to sit down with me, so I could explain some basic scientific principles to him, starting with radiometric dating. The smile and love on his face I can still see. He listened patiently, then gave me a few books written by creation scientists, whose academic credentials made mine look quite elementary in comparison. I saw formally written for the first time, creation, science and history from a completely different world view. An intelligent argument for intelligent design, by people more intelligent than I.

God made it quite simple, it is we who have made it complicated. Our pride driving us to come up with complex explanations for everything, explanations much harder to fathom than those which we accepted by innate default before anyone had explained anything to us in the first place.

Scripture tells us that God loves a childlike heart. He loves also a hardened heart, enough to call it, pull it and reshape it back to its original childlike state.