The first part of why I love Jesus explains His sacrificial nature and character while in this part of the or the post I would like to emphasize His compassionate and loving side towards children.
As I studied the behaviour of my Master- Jesus in the bible, I realised that He has a special tender love for children. This can be seen through various scriptures. For instance in Matthew 19:4 “He said that allow the children to come” because His disciples were hindering the children from coming to Him. Then in another place, He said- Taking the child in His arms, He said… “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My Name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the One Who sent Me.” Mark9:36-37.
This is one of the reasons that drew me closer and closer to Jesus is His love for children. When I pay attention to how He behaves with children, i.e. He is always welcoming to children, always accepting them never rejecting them. He knows that children are weak and need help; He doesn’t disappoint Children unlike most of the adults do. When I perceive all these things it naturally draws me closer to God. It makes me trust HIM, Believe in HIM that HE will understand me, trust me, will know my weakness and yet not reject me. I have found my acceptance in Jesus.
These scriptures also point that He not only loves them but His presence goes with children! I want to add that it’s not only scripture but I have personally tasted God’s love and seen that it’s good! I have experienced in my life that He is gentle, kind, welcoming, accepting and compassionate towards me.
Now just to give some context and background; I had a very rough childhood. My parents were not as loving and considerate as one is required by God. As a result, I experienced a lot of harshness and many personal violations by them and caretakers. Later on, when I accepted Jesus as my Saviour He said this one thing:
when my father and mother have forsaken me then Yahweh takes me in. (ps 27:10)
Abba Father became a parent to me. But my past experience didn’t allow me to trust HIM and leave myself in His Hands. But thanks be to His Merciful ways, He gently and compassionately healed many wounds and hurts related to trust. To present a deeper picture of gentleness let me first give you the meaning of the word gentle: it means having or showing a mild, kind, or tender temperament or character.
When a doctor nurses a wound they have to be gentle and careful so that they don’t deepen the wound and cause further damage. Similarly, Jesus Christ is very gentle in dealing with our wounds; He makes sure that the wound is healed without causing further damage. Let me also tell you that healing of wounds is a process that can last from minutes to days, just like our physical wounds. And since it was a long process of healing, in my case God was consistently gentle and compassionate throughout the whole process. This can be the case with all those who ask Jesus Christ to heal their wounds. I have discovered God’s compassion and love during these times of healing. He literally draws us with His love just as He picked up the child in His arms as described in Mark 9:36
So, my point being; like many others, I too have flaws and weaknesses and I am not very righteous all the time. Sometimes I slip and make mistakes but even in all this, I have experienced that Jesus never rejected me. He is always accepting me as I am but at the same time changing me from inside to make me more like HIM.
I love Jesus because of such life-changing experiences I have with Him.
Author: Shivani Sheth
