Ash Wednesday – February 10th 2016
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
– Matthew 8: 2-3In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all of the flaming darts of the evil one.
– Ephesians 6:16
A five year old, kindergarten boy was faced with his mother dying of Leukemia. For 6 weeks, he saw his mother decline from a vibrant, joyous mother, to a shell of herself, to eventually, her death. Before he was allowed to return to school, the guidance counselor required a visit with him and a guardian. Upon arrival at the school, the counselor started to read a book talking about the inevitability of death. The five year old boy, stopped him mid book and said, “I am not sad, my mother was sick and God made her healthy again; she is now dancing in the streets of Heaven with Jesus.” This is a true story – my older sister witnessed it first hand as the “guardian” that the school required to be present.
I know it is a simple story, but it should help us to remember that life is not as hard as we sometimes make it out to be. The devil can, and will, put all types of obstacles in our path to distract us from our faith. He is trying to distract us from the only thing that matters – Christ died for our sins, rose from the grave and has saved us through grace; the end result of everything worldly is Heaven.
Many times, we spend our time focusing on the immaterial things of our world. When will Jesus return? Why does God allow death? How will the afterlife look? Should gay marriage be approved by the church? Why do bad things happen to good people? The list of questions could go on forever. My prayer for all of us this Lenten season is that we can have faith like a child. No more worries, no more looking for answers to things that don’t matter or distract us – just simplistic faith – with our constant focus on what we know. Christ died for our sins, rose from the grave, and has given us all grace that we haven’t earned. Someday, if you are saved through the grace offered by Jesus, you too, can be dancing in the streets of Heaven with Jesus.
– The Clarks
