FIRE AND WATER
Since, Lord to thee a narrow way and a little gate is all the passage, on my infancy thou didst lay hold, and antedate my faith in me.—George Herbert, ‘Holy Baptism’
We love to hear testimonies of dramatic conversion; we rightly rejoice to see the power of God's salvation in ‘publicans and prostitutes.’ Perhaps, in this noisy culture of special effects, we fail to likewise realize and praise the power of God in saving little children. I know I have sometimes wished my own conversion was more showy: I don't have a Pauline testimony to share, no spectacular turning from flagrant sins. Sometimes, God speaks with a small voice into the lives of small people.
I must have been four or five when a Sunday School teacher talked to my class about ‘asking Jesus into your heart.’ I don't pretend to have understood all the meaning of my commitment {I thought I would never do bad things again, and was soon corrected by experience}, but I did ‘receive the Kingdom of Heaven as a little child’ {Mark 10:15}, trusting in the saving sufficiency of Christ. And God, who knows my frame {Psalm 103:14}, suckled me as a mother at her breast {Isaiah 66:12-13} with the milk of his Word, and fed me with ‘strong meat’ as I grew in years {Hebrews 5:13-14}.
Some of those raised in Christian families are anxious or apologetic when asked about their ‘conversion.’ They can share no date or event to mark the moment, perhaps no memory at all of a decision, or perhaps the memory of a decision they had been too young to ‘really understand.’ They seem to have always known Christ, and sometimes wonder whether they are really saved if they can't isolate an occurrence. To any with such doubts I recommend Featherstone's hymn: ‘If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, tis now.’
But I will also say that children too are spiritual beings; and I believe that from a young age they are able to recognize their need and to receive Christ. For Christ received and blessed the little children {Mark 10:16}, and recognized the ‘perfected praise’ that came from their lips {Matthew 21:16}. Like the disciples, we tend to dismiss children as too young and simple to approach Christ. They do not understand everything about faith, we might say {did those little children understand what they meant when they shouted ‘Hosannah to the Son of David’?}—but then neither do we.
God did not come to me as to Saul in a blinding flash of light, but he gently lit the dawn of my life. God has created variety of persons, and in them displays the beautiful varieties of his own nature; for there are hearts to whom God comes as a swift and beautiful flame, and those to whom he comes as ‘small rain upon the tender herb.’
Let us rejoice in the God who knows us.
• A vibrant tropical sunrise paints the skies. •
October 29, 2013