Childlike Faith - Part 5

DAILY BYTE

No-one knows exactly how bad the situation in South Africa is for children who are abused. In reporting on this Health 24 had the following to say:
“In this country there is a culture of non-reporting and underreporting of sexual offences. With the recent moratorium placed on the release of crime statistics, accurate figures are currently not available. Earlier figures released by the SAPS make for some terrifying reading, though.

Between 1994 and 1999 23,900 rape cases were reported to the police. It is reasonable to assume that many of these cases involved children. The SAPS estimate that only between one in twenty and one in thirty-five rapes are reported to the police. The same kind of reporting ratio would hold in cases regarding minors. When parents assume that their children are not at risk, they are very wide off the mark.”

Not exactly pleasant reading for a Friday morning I know, but child abuse is something we need to be aware of and deeply concerned with. The reason I bring this up, is because I was recently struck by a thought concerning the passage on childlike faith we have been studying all week.

What does this story teach us about God? For me, it is a glimpse into the very heart of God, a reminder of divine nature: That God cares for the little ones, the very least in our society. You see children in Jesus’ day were often abused, just like today. Besides the types of abuse that are commonly known to us, it was also not unheard of for a parent to sell their children into slavery in an attempt to recover debt. Children were often treated as nothing more than possessions.

They were definitely seen and not heard, invisible and voiceless. Except ... except by God walking on earth as a man. Through Jesus, we learn that God has seen their plight and heard their cries for help. Through Jesus, we learn that God’s arms are always stretched out to the little ones, to those who find themselves at the bottom of our social hierarchies.

And in fact, we learn from this God, that we should also reach out to and love the world’s little ones. For not only has God commanded that we do all we can to protect them, but God has also told us that they hold kingdom truths which we all need to learn. Further to that, Jesus tells us that when we open our arms to embrace God’s little ones, we may find that we are in fact embracing God himself.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, we want to lift up to you every child that suffers. Those who are abandoned, abused and neglected. We pray O’ God that you would be their deliverer, and that they would know you as Father. We also pray that you would raise up Christians across the world, (including ourselves), to reach out and embrace all your “little ones” who are in need. In Christ name we pray. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Mark 9:36-37 (New International Version)

He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."