A Little Child Shall Lead Them

This evening in church, we were graced with a violin solo from a visiting preacher's daughter, who could not have been more than 10 years old.  She also sang a few words, to the cooing of all the old ladies and mothers in the congregation.  

I don't know much Ukrainian, but my language skills were hardly challenged by the simple message of her song: "I know what it is God asks of me--to love Him with all my heart, to do good as Jesus taught us with His example, and to love the church as brothers and sisters...."  

Amen, little sister.  

"He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you.  And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"  -Micah 6:8

The Christian faith is not one that requires a degree in rocket science to understand.  If this were so, who would be doomed to eternal destruction but the poor, the uneducated, the mentally retarded or psychologically ill?  Instead, the only stumbling block to faith is a heart filled with pride in one's own wisdom.  

"He has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to shame the strong."  -1 Cor. 1:27

And Jesus said, 

"I praise You, Father, that You have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to infants!"  -Luke 10:21

We who believe ourselves to be wise are so easily hung up in the "advanced" matters of faith that we can't see the forest for the trees.  So many of us are like my Greek professor, who can spend an hour breaking down some complex verb conjugation and identifying its root, case ending, and participle morpheme... and, when he returns to earth, is no closer to discovering what the word actually meant.  

The bottom line is this: God loves us.  He showed us love because he wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.  From that love for God flows every good thing in our lives... and these good things are centered around our love for everyone else.  

If any teaching serves only to puff up our egos, and not to inspire us to love God and our neighbor, avoid it.  It's not from God.  Thanks to my little sister for reminding me of that fact.  

May we all learn to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.