Infants ;)

I was just reading and it made me think back to something I heard Matt Chandler say just a few months after Kenadi was born. At the time, Kenadi was still in the infant stages where I was still getting up every couple hours at night. Every time I've read these verses before, I never really connected it to a baby crying out in hope because of their need (which you'd think I would have because of the verses beforehand).

“Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."” Luke 18 :15-17

Matt went on to say, "So what we tried to unpack is how does an infant receive things? I am intimately acquainted with this right now. Nora, when she’s hungry, her only hope to get food is to cry and hope. When she’s in her own filth, her only hope is to cry. When she’s uncomfortable, her only hope is to cry. When she’s cold, her only hope is to cry. When she’s hot, her only hope is to cry. When she wants to be cuddled, her only hope is to cry. Nora can do nothing except cry and hope."

If you read back in the text a little bit, it shows what the Pharisee and the tax collector prayed. The Pharisee's prayer was not bad - he's giving God credit for his spiritual growth. The problem was that he thought his spiritual growth justified him.

The tax collector pleads the blood of Christ. He cries out because he see's how unworthy he is. He see's his need. By no act of morality, by no act of religion will he be saved. It will be by His mercy; through Christ alone.

The only ones who will be justified are the ones who come to the kingdom like infants, whose only way to receive is to cry out.