• Blessing the Children
Blessing the Children
It was Jesus who said, with open arms and open hands, “Let the little children come unto Me, and forbid them not.” (Matt. 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16)
It is hard to imagine anything less from our compassionate Savior. All children would be welcome to Jesus. Mothers in that day would bring their children to Him. He would put His hands on them and bless them.
I learned about this while I was India, the first time.
We visited a remote tribal village. People would come out of their huts to greet the missionary and his visitor. After some greetings the people gathered around and began speaking to me. “What are they saying?” I asked. The missionary replied, “They are asking that you pray for them.” “Oh, OK!” So I did, I closed my eyes and began to pray, unbeknown to me, as I was praying mothers with children moved to the front of the crowd next to me.
When I opened my eyes from my impromtu prayer, to my surprise, they held up their babes in arms and spoke. I asked the missionary again, “What are they saying?” He replied, “They want you to pray for their babies.” Whoa, nowhere else has this ever happened me. So in that moment, I remembered Jesus blessed the children when the mothers also brought their children to Him. So I moved from baby to baby putting my outstretched hand on each child with a prayer for blessing and provision for these little ones. I know Jesus cared for them and I was invoking His blessing upon them and their parents.
I was so affected by this opportunity that it has been a constant reminder since then I represent Jesus to the children with my prayers and my hands. As the India trip progressed from place-to-place and village-to-village, (some thirty ministries in 11 days) this happened many more times. I continued to pray with my one hand in air reaching towards heaven and the other hand blessing the heads of each child present, until all would be prayed for.
It was very hard to stop before all the children were touched. And if you started, it was a commitment to continue to the end, even youth and adults began requesting this favor. It was so powerful. God was working there.
This affected me in a very personal way.
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