THURSDAY, November 17

Matthew 18:1-9. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

It seems Jesus identified with children. What was it about children that made this so?

Surely not their behavior. Children are self-centered in the extreme, demanding what they want when they want it, with no thought of anyone else. Putting the needs of others first is a learned behavior. Children require disciplining. If they weren’t so cute, we might not put up with children for thirty seconds.

I think it was children’s spontaneity that Jesus identified with. Children live in the moment. When a boy falls and skins his knee, he cries aloud, but a moment later, it is forgotten and he returns to the playground. Hold your little daughter in your lap, and her pleasure is instant and unmistakable. When one child snatches a toy from another, the anger is immediate but soon forgotten; grudges are not long held.

Adults, on the other hand, are often burdened by past hurts and anxieties about the future. Unlike children, adults often nurse old wounds and calculate about getting even. Jesus was childlike in that he lived each moment to the fullest, never obsessing about things beyond his control, entrusting both past and future to his heavenly Father. Is there any reason we adults couldn’t live our lives like that, too?

Ps 105:1-22 * 105:23-45; 1 Maccabees 4:1-25; Revelation 21:22—22:5

View the daily Lectionary Readings at http://satucket.com/lectionary/

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