“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” What is it about children that makes them fit for the Kingdom of Heaven? I don’t believe the cliched image of “the innocence of children” applies. As anyone who has every hung around a school yard can tell you, children can be cruel. Bullying is a real problem. So if it is not innocence, what is it that Jesus sees in children that they are kingdom-ready? At least part of the answer is that children live in the present tense. Instead of stewing about what happened yesterday or worrying about what will happen tomorrow they have fun with what is right in front of them.
