Christianity is the one world religion in which God comes to us as a vulnerable child, in fact, as a helpless baby. Throughout the Gospels, we are reminded that in relating to the vulnerable—to "the least of these"—we are relating to God. In Christ, God entered this world as a baby in a manger, lived as an adult who "had no place to lay his head," and exited among thieves on the cross.

These are snapshots of vulnerability. Yet this vulnerable Christ child represents hope, the hope of salvation. "We have been saved by hope" (Rom. 8:24). The child represents humanity’s hope in multiple layers of meaning.

The first three Gospels show Jesus prolifically proactive in drawing attention to children’s issues and defining the child’s role. Sixteen passages in the first three Gospels record Jesus’ comments on children, with the major passage in Matthew 18:2–6, 14.1 There Jesus calls a child to himself and reflects on the child’s secure place in God’s kingdom.

In Matthew 18:3, Jesus advocates conversion and childlikeness; in verse 4, he praises the child’s humility; in verse 5, he identifies with the child; in verse 6, he prescribes a fatal sentence for child abusers. The "large millstone" he calls for is literally a "donkey-turned millstone," too heavy for a human to operate. Jesus so identified with the child that he emphasized "whatever you do to one of these smallest believers, you do unto me" (Matt. 25:40).

Jesus established that children are citizens of the spiritual kingdom. They belong by default to the kingdom of heaven. Citizenship is theirs automatically. Eventually, each one must decide whether or not to travel life’s journey on a Christian passport.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was two thousand years ahead of his time in voicing concerns about children that state and secular agencies are raising today. Had Christians been more sensitive to the child-centered concerns of their Lord, we would today be at the head, not the tail, of child protection. So indifferent to his concerns have we been that no church council has ever sat in session on the issue of the theology of the child; we still lack such a theology two thousand years after his death.

In contrast, Christians have written volumes throughout the centuries on relationships between adults. The Ten Commandments share this concern, particularly with the related issue of adultery, because the Genesis injunction to "be fruitful and multiply" is fundamental and powerful issues arise from it. However, Jesus refocused on the child’s role in the process.

Without the child, the process ends. The child is the carrier of new life possibilities, just as the Christ child is the ultimate child, the Desire of Ages. People live vicariously through their children, aware that each generation’s life is but a short span of time on earth. Their hopes are invested in their children. In each family, the individual child represents the hope that the best in the family will live on. The child carries the family, clan, or tribe into the future.

Just as children are focal points of earthly families, so also has our Lord Jesus shined a spiritual spotlight on them as members of his heavenly family. And just as parents often find raising a child humbling and unpredictable, so can God’s guidance for adult believers seem complex, unpredictable, and surprising.

Faithful stewardship of children comes from a faithful relationship to God. The Ten Commandments can help us develop what Ellen White has defined as firm and kind management. In the Ten Commandments, we see expressions of high expectations, whereas from our understanding of God’s love come expressions of warmth. A home or school managed in a manner that shows high expectations, while also providing personal warm, develops resilient children.

This process may be difficult at times, but God has faith in the younger generation. It was the older generation of Israelites that died in the wilderness, whereas the younger one entered the promised land. That story is useful daily meditation, as is that of Moses’ mother. She may have wondered why she went to so much effort to save her promising baby boy, only to have him grow up to be an Egyptian-speaking, hot-tempered fugitive, with a death sentence on his head. But the mother of Moses will not be the only parent for whom eternity has wonderful surprises!

God is a God of the vulnerable. Both testaments offer repeated admonitions to connect with the poorly connected: the widow, the fatherless, the "stranger among you," the single parent, the migrant, and the refugee. In relating to those who are less connected, we relate to God. In Western societies, in which families of single parents and single children have increasingly become the norm, the church as an extended family is becoming more and more important for parents, nonparents, and children who represent the most vulnerable in our midst.

Although not all children in the church family may be ours genetically—not "blood of our blood and bone of our bone"—they are all blood of Jesus’ blood, and spirit of Jesus’ spirit. In accepting and connecting with the children among us, we accept and connect with Jesus. This is our challenge and salvation.

Notes and References

1. The sixteen passages include Matthew 18:2, 4, 5, 6, 14; 19:13, 14; 21:15–16; Mark 9:36, 37; 10:15; 13:12; Luke 1:17; 8:48; 18:17. Jesus in John’s Gospel does not address children. The term child there is used for his disciples.

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