A Child’s Eyes
By Jeff Casillo
Good Day to each of you reading this column—This lesson and observations does not directly deal with the Ten Commandments, but something more personal that I wish to share.
My wife and I had the pleasure of keeping our seven-month old grand baby boy for the weekend—He brought the greatest joy to me—As I held him, rocking on the porch and looking out at our pond, his eyes were as big as “the moon in Jupiter” looking about and noticing the leaves dropping, birds singing and flying, a lizard crawling about on the flowers, touching the bench we were sitting in, and gazing at me with a big, beautiful smile.
Please turn with me to Luke 9:46-48 (FF) A discussion then took place among them (disciples), as to which of them must be the greatest. But Jesus, perceiving the debate in their hearts, took a little child, and placing him by His side, said to them: “Whoever receives this child in My name, receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives my Sender; for the least esteemed among you all is the one who will be great.”
Now turn to Matthew 18:1-5 (NIV) At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said:” I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.
Please read the above verses again and let these words sink in—Children, such as my seven-month-old grandson are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven because they humble themselves.
I was so humbled to hold this bundle of joy given to me by God, for he knew him before the grandbaby was born—Here is a child, whose eyes are wide open, are taking in all that the world offers—The child sees things that you and I take for granted each day, they touch items for the first time, see colors never seen before, feel the texture of a leaf, eat a bit of dirt, watch a butterfly fly and land on their head, smell an apple before eating, smile and laugh at you when you are holding them and as you hold them and rock them, they look at you with their wide open eyes knowing they are secure and safe in your arms. Someone once said, the eyes are the window to the soul and in the case of a child, this is so true, for those wide-open eyes are taking in every minute of every day of all that you do and say as they grow and nurture.
As you hold your grandchild or child and you look into their eyes, are you not humbled by this gift from God and that you can experience together many of the same things that your little one will experience.
I was looking at the word humble online and found many synonyms for the word that would fit adults, but with an infant, I can’t think of just one word that fits them.
You see, God gives us children to teach, train and grow in him—Jesus wanted to show the disciples as well as us to be humble, be nice and to become like little children who are taught faith, hope and love.
When looking into my grand child’s eyes, I was reminded of the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Then, he began to cry because he was hungry, and self-control went out the back door. These signify the virtues of a child and as they grow, let them grow in these virtues and not the vices of this world as mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21.
As you hold your child or grandchild, be child-like and humble yourself for you have received the greatest gift from God who loves you, created you and will never leave you nor forsake you.
May God Bless you each day and May you Bless God always for all that he has done and continue to do each day.
Editor’s Note: It is with a great deal of pleasure that we introduce Jeff Casillo, a new correspondent to Thy Kingdom Come. We published one of his articles a few months ago and received such good response that we had to get him on board on a more permanent basis. By the way, he has his own website UnderstandingGodsLaws.com, and we encourage you to visit it, you won’t be disappointed. He has such an understandable way of explaining God’s Laws and yet makes reading them so interesting. Jeff is an American, born in Pennsylvania, brought up in Orlando, Florida, then settled down in South Carolina where he found the love of his life, a wonderful Christian lady, as he describes her. Together, they brought up four children. His first love, however, was the Lord Jesus Christ because at age eight, he gave himself to the Lord. He says he was well versed in Christ by that time because his parents were devout Christians themselves.
Jeff has lots of time to write and study because after a successful business venture owned jointly with his wife, he is now semi-retired. Of course, he also has his outside interests, like fishing, gardening and collecting old cars.
Welcome aboard, Jeff.
