Each One Is Special

For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.

A radio host related a story about her little girl. They were working in their yard and their daughter had a basket as was picking up stones. At the end of the day she proudly carried her basket into the house. Her mom asked her what she was going to do with all those stones, and that she should just pick out two and put the rest back. Her daughter looked and her and said, “I can’t do that”, “why not” asked her mom? “Because each one is special” she replied. As her mom looked in the basket, all she could see was a bunch of dirty insignificant rocks. But the look in her daughters eyes made her sit down and ask her daughter to tell her about them.

She proudly picked one out and cradled it in her hand as she showed her mom all the unique and beautiful things about this common stone. Then she gently set it down on the table and did the same with another and then another until the basket was empty. All her mom could do was listen and wish she could have seen the things her daughter saw in these ordinary rocks. She allowed her to place everyone back in the basket and keep them in her room. Every time she went into her daughters room she was reminded of what Jesus told his disciples, “unless you become as little children.” She prayed that God would begin to work in her heart, to give her the ability to see this world as her child did, in simplicity without the tainting of this world. That she would see beauty and uniqueness instead of something dirty and unimportant.

How about you? How do you see the world around you? How do you see others? How do you see yourself? Has life become such a hassle or rat race that you just don’t take time to see things as Jesus would? Take time today to answer these questions, and answer them honestly. Then think about how different your life would be if you looked at it with a child’s heart. Then every day this week plan to look at something from a child’s perspective and thank God for it. At the end of the week ask yourself if you haven’t felt a change in your life.