A True Story
He and his wife were in their late forties, raising a large family. And raising them well. Theirs was a family that spent a lot of time together, and anyone who ever visited their home couldn’t help but notice that they had a good time together
Job-wise he was doing fine – an office job with a large company. He wasn’t at the executive level, but it was enough to make his family “middle-income.” The lower end of that bracket, but still middle-income. And he liked what he was doing.
The whole family was involved in their parish in lots of different ways. Faithful to Sunday Mass, of course, but also ready to lend a hand in whatever needed to be done.
One day while having lunch at work, some of the fellows said to him, “You know, you’ve got a lot of talent, and the bosses like you. But you don’t work much overtime, and you just don’t seem to have the drive. You’re still middle-aged and you’ve got a shot at bettering yourself. You ought to go for it. You’ll have to give up some of the time you spend with your family and the other things you’re involved in for a while, but it’ll be worth it. You’ve got to make some changes. Otherwise, you’ll never get ahead.”
He said, “Ahead of what?”
People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them, and when the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. Jesus, however, called the children to himself and said, “Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)
Let’s place ourselves inside the scene and see what details we notice. You are someone who happened to be passing by the synagogue where Jesus had been doing some teaching. Waiting for him on the outside were a couple of women who had brought their infants for a blessing. Some other women noticed this and hurried off to get their infants too.
When Jesus came out and saw this, he beamed. He took each infant in his arms, spoke to each baby as one does to an infant, and placed a hand on its head as he prayed a blessing with his eyes closed.
When the disciples saw other women coming with their infants, they went over to them and said that Jesus could only do the ones already there. He had to be moving on.
Jesus saw this as he was giving an infant back to its mother. He acted quickly. Totally ignoring the disciples, he looked straight at the women arriving and said not to worry – he had plenty of time for all of them.
It’s not simply that Jesus loved infants. He wanted everyone to know that the way a mother loves these little ones – that’s how God loves us.
Back to the pivotal truth: It’s all a gift from God.