“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” These well beloved words of Jesus have been rendered often in paintings. How attractive in the image of Jesus with the little children! What is the characteristic of a child that makes them belong in the kingdom? We have a cliche about “the innocence of a child” but you don’t have to hang around children for long before you see that they can be as selfish and cruel as any adult. At least part of the answer would be that children know how to receive gifts. For us to enter the Kingdom we must receive it as God’s gift, not as something we deserve.
