Christian Living

Welcoming Jesus

by Linda Lawrence 
09/14/23
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My Saudi Arabian conversation partner, a married doctoral student, was struggling with the difficulties of doing research while mothering her two little boys. ”I love to learn and research. I want to make the world better . . . ” she said, her face full of light. “But my children want me to be with them, to play. They grab from each other and cry, and they won’t go to bed . . .” The light in her beautiful eyes faded as she grimaced.

I empathize with her frustration of preferring the joys of research to the raucous demands and desires of a three and  six-year-old. I, too, lack maternal inclinations, preferring reading to playing, refereeing, cooking and cleaning. Therefore, I just listened, silently praying that God would mercifully help her work out His priorities for her—as He  had to do for me.

Leaning across the table, she startled me by asking, “How would you advise me?”

Oh, oh! Lord, you know how I struggled and often failed when my own children were young. I know my thoughts about children are not Your thoughts. What can I tell her? 

“Oh my, I don’t know. Let’s ask the Lord to help us.” And I just started praying. “Father, we are Your children and we need Your wisdom. I know Areej loves her boys and You love them even more. And you love Areej. And you care about their souls. Will You help her to find joy in caring for her boys with love—the way You care for us. Amen.”

I then changed the subject, uncomfortable with my own lack of warm feelings toward children—including her cute but very disruptive boys. 

However, I continued all week to ask God what He would advise her. The morning Areej was to return, my regular chronological reading of the Bible put me in Mark 9.  I read about the disciples arguing over which of them was the greatest and Jesus’ rebuke. “Anyone wanting to be the greatest must be the least—the servant of all!” Ah Lord, we think of the children as the least, but You want us to serve them—not send them away.

What came next made me laugh—even do a little happy dance—with its perfection as the answer to my prayer for insight: Then Jesus placed a little child among them and said, ”Anyone who welcomes a little child like this is welcoming Me, and anyone who welcomes Me is welcoming My Father.” 

I could hardly wait to show this to Areej. I encouraged her to read it aloud to me from The Living Bible. Always eager to fully understand every English word, she asked for the meaning of ‘welcome.’

“Oh, Areej, you know how happy and eager we are to see each other when you come? How we open our arms and gather each other close—that is welcoming!” I saw her face light up with understanding.

“And look! You want to learn—you want to know more and more about God! Do you hear what Jesus is saying? If you welcome your children . . . “ I opened my arms wide, demonstrating a loving invitation, “you are also welcoming Jesus! And if you welcome Jesus, you are welcoming His Father—our God! Do you see? We can learn so much about God by embracing the time we have with our children! By serving them, we are also serving God! Our heavenly Father is answering our prayer by showing us His love through the way Jesus loves us—sacrificial love!”

Areej and I both laughed, thankful,  clasping our hands with joy that God was with us, guiding us—through the words and life of Jesus. 

My own children, now in their fifties, are very aware of my lack of seemingly natural maternal instincts and are thankful to Jesus for convicting me of the need of a servant’s heart towards them. Even they give Jesus the credit for knowing they are loved and cherished in spite of my innate self-centered tendencies. They recognize it is because Jesus welcomed me that I learned to welcome them—and to welcome Jesus. 

Mark 9:33-37