Pointing our children to the Superhero Jesus
A superhero flying across multi-storied worlds, aliens changing shapes, magical powers… These things may excite our children. They shout for joy, there’s delight in their eyes and they imitate their favourite superhero. We delight equally in these small pleasures of theirs, are content with the way they are growing up and allow them to spend long hours doing things that will not disturb us.
There was a time when children had close proximity to The Superhero – Jesus. The blind healed; the dead risen to life; the lepers cleaned – they saw it all happen, right in front of their eyes! In Matthew 21: 12-16 we see, Jesus went into the temple and cleared away all the wrong things happening there and declared, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer…” and thereafter He began showing the Father’s Heart by healing the sick.
The children watched Him closely. They must have known some of them, the lame could have been somebody’s relative and the blind could have been their parent’s friend. They were excited as they were witnessing wonders which was beyond their imaginations. They couldn’t contain themselves and they began shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”
Nothing has changed, but we desperately need change.
The Father’s Heart is still the same: In Christ Jesus, every child has the heart of worship. In Matthew 21: 16, Jesus calls children’s praise, perfect. He sees their heart is pure, bold, without the fear of man and free from rituals. Our Father God desires to hear praises from young children and He knows each voice, “I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.” (John 10:14)
The Word of God is still the same: Jesus knew the power in the praises of children and therefore did not shun their shouts. The praises from the mouth of children have the power to defeat Satan, the power to nullify the power of darkness (Psalms 8:2). Jesus believed this fact and declared it that day in the temple, He accepted their praise and enjoyed in their jubilation.
Children need not be taught how to praise and worship, it is in their DNA. Children react to what they see the most, they get excited about the things what they hear most. If they are exposed to the Father’s Heart, their hearts will automatically shout forth praise and their spirit will worship Him.
So who needs to change? We do.
The Father’s heart
Like Jesus we need to show the Father’s Heart to our children. Jesus visualized the Father’s Heart through His actions, similarly our children will be able to see Christ’s love through us parents, through our relationship with each other and with others, in our giving, in the way we treat them and others.
We need to recognize and acknowledge the power in their praise. Once we have done that, it will be easy for us to explain its power to them- which will help them accept it and put it into practice.
We need to train our children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). There is a need to train our children in spending time doing the things that are Kingdom based. Watch out on the things that consume most of their time, train them to sit in the presence of the Lord at home as well as Church, let them hear you pray for them, be a part of their God-given dreams and encourage them.
Father God accepts the significance of a child’s praise to Him, it’s time we value what we have in our hands.