In His Arms

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

IN HIS ARMS

Mark 10:13-16

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."  16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

NIV

Once again we see this child-like faith that is needed in order to, not just see but enter into the kingdom of God. As we know, most attitudes are learned over time, and when we were little children, small enough to be taken up in the arms, we did not have any of the learned adult attitudes that can prevent us from entering into the kingdom of God. Jesus has told us that it is not what goes into us that defiles our body, for it enters the stomach and at some point leaves the body, but it is what comes out of our mouth, our words, which defile our bodies. This is what he meant by that as we think so are we. What is in our heart, or rather our mind, our attitudes which dictate our behaviors or our interactions with others and we learn those attitudes as we grow up from childhood. So Jesus wants us to go back and remember the innocence of our childhood, the simple faith of believing what we were told by our parents, just pure faith, without doubt, without complications of trying to discover some hidden agenda or reason for what they said. This is the faith we need to come to Jesus, to hear his words and believe everything he said and trust that it is all truth, all of it, the whole of it, and not try to decide which of what is said that was only for them, and not for us, or what happened then no longer applies to us today, or try to make more of it then it should be, or that God put in all these mysteries that we have to decipher what is meant. Children do not care about such things, they only have faith and believe. Now that is another thought which strikes us as well. Receiving, or having faith in the kingdom of God like a little child is also being taken up in the arms of Jesus and being blessed. To not just be leaning on the everlasting arms of Jesus, as the lyrics of that song by the same words, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”, but to be taken up into His arms as he did with those children. That is the blessing, it is to be held in His everlasting arms. He promised that no one would ever be able to snatch us from his hand, or we could also take that to mean His arms. We often say that we have to hold on to the truth, but the truth is also that Jesus holds onto us. We also say that we should bless the Lord, as another song would suggest, Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, but that truth is also that Jesus blesses us, as we come to him, as we accept the truth about the kingdom of God like a little child, with pure unashamed faith, He Blesses us and takes us up in His everlasting arms.