We all do a lot of things and use a lot of things without knowing how it works. We breath and eat without knowing how our lungs take in the oxygen or how our stomach breaks down each molecule. We use computers and cars without knowing how all the different parts of them are put together. Some of us may even pray, but we don’t understand how God answers our prayers. We don’t need to understand how for something to work.
When I was a child in elementary school, I use to pray for my grandpa to stop smoking and drinking alcohol. I use to pray for God to protect me from evil. I prayed for my family and relatives to accept Jesus as their Savior. I even remember Jesus appearing to me in a dream once and I woke up crying. God eventually answered many of my prayers where my grandpa did stop smoking and drinking alcohol and where my mom did eventually follow Christ. The truth is as a child, I didn’t know much on prayer, but I just pleaded with God because I knew something was wrong and in my heart I longed for things to be different.
In Matt. 18:10, it says “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” John Wesley comments “See that ye despise not one of these little ones – As if they were beneath your notice. Be careful to receive and not to offend, the very weakest believer in Christ: for as inconsiderable as some of these may appear to thee, the very angels of God have a peculiar charge over them: even those of the highest order, who continually appear at the throne of the Most High.” Even a child who is uneducated in how prayer works has such authority because he is a son of the Most High God. Through a child’s faithful prayers in the spiritual realm, things in the physical realm will change. I wasn’t a huge fan of working with children because most of it feels like I am just playing with them and I couldn’t recognize the significant impact of spending time to love them. However, now I see that it is crucial to invest our time in children and to raise them up in the way they should go because even at childhood, their lives have the potential for significant impact. My life had changed forever because aunt and uncle had shared with me the message of Jesus to me when I was only a child. They and my family loved me and nurtured the best within me.
In Africa, I’ve seen two children named Patrick and Melissa who have been rejected by their parents. Although Patrick is four and Melissa is eight years old, both suffer from disabilities and are only the physical size of a two year old. Both can hardly talk and only make sounds while Melissa cannot walk because she is too weak. When Philip and Aidah (two of our amazing hosts) had taken them in, they told us how they had to deworm them, help them use the restroom, and try to help them eat. They have improved much through love, care, and prayer. These are the implications of extreme neglect of children, but love is turning things around.
“Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.” Job 8:7
Let us love and care for children that God brings into our lives because though they have very small beginnings today, they need us to help them become who God has created them to become the people that God dreams for them to become.
