The Unconditional Love of Little Children And Why The Bible Teaches Us to Be like Them

Cover of Little Children

I sometimes take time to look at the sheer innocence of little children and can’t help to marvel at them. They never judge, they regard every human being as worth the space on this planet. This makes children so beautiful to live with and there is no wonder that the  Bible is clear on this when it says, for Christians to enter the Kingdom of God, they  must first be like little children.

A story is told of a well-to-do Christian family that went to have Dinner out with their 5 year old boy. As they entered the Restaurant, they noted that everybody was quiet, saying only a few words if any, to their friends and family members with whom they shared the dinning table. As the eating went by, a dirty old man who looked not any different from a homeless man showed up in the Restaurant.

Nearly everybody in the Restaurant looked at him with disgust because he was unkempt, he wore a pair of shoes with a couple of toes peeping out of them, he carried an uncomfortable body odour with an over sized torn coat, buggy trousers, short moustache and long disgusting beards heavily mixed with gray hair. Many were even heard whispering to themselves, why the  authorities had allowed such a man into the Restaurant and the general feeling was that this old man had simply spoilt their wonderful day out.

Just as all these feelings were still boiling around, the 5 year old boy left his plate of food and walked over to the old man and sat next to him before delving into a deep, friendly conversation with him. He was seen dusting off specks of dirt from the old man’s heavily worn coat as he promised to talk to his dad to give the  man a better shoe. The old man’s hitherto sad face, lightened up and for every sentence he said to the little boy, he would use the words, “my big baby boy”.  To show exactly what he was made of, the  little boy ran over to the table where his parents were eating and picked up his own unfinished plate and handed over the little food still in there to the old man. He watched in triumph as the old dirty, homeless man devoured the left over contents of the plate, before heartily thanking the  little boy.

When the parents had eaten and of-course, feeling abit embarrassed that their little boy was fraternising rather too much  with such a disgusting old man, the mother of the boy walked out of the restaurant to wait for her hubby at the parking yard, but the little boy joined his father to the counter to pay the bill. They then walked together  to the door where the old man had sat ever since he entered the Restaurant. Just was they walked past the poor old man, the boy turned to father and told him, “Dad, this is my friend”! Before the Dad could say anything to the man, the little boy had literally jumped into the arms of the old man and was stroking his hair with such level of friendliness that the father was left embarrassed. The old man lifted the little boy up and gave him a good long look before he reluctantly gave the boy over to his father. With tears in his eyes, he told the father of the boy to take good care of his son because there are very few people in this world like him!

As the father  received his son from this homeless stranger, he could not help shading some tears of his own, because it quickly dawned on him that his little son had done what he himself had failed to do to a man such as this who needed compassion and love from his fellow men. His 5 year old boy tested his Christian faith and beat him in the game of living a Christ-like life. That is why the Bible says, in order for one to enter the Kingdom of God, Christians must first be like little children.