Jesus mentioned children several different times throughout his ministry.
One of his most famous interactions with kids occurred in Matthew 19:13-15, which happened after he had gone into Judea, having just spent time in Galilee and taught those gathered there about the nature of marriage, adultery and divorce.
“Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there,” the passage reads.
Theologians have pointed out that when Jesus said that for one to receive the Kingdom he or she must do so like a child in order to enter it reveals something important about God’s nature and how He relates to us, his children.
Such childlike receiving is expressed in total trust, notes Kent Hughes, professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, writing on the WTS website in a 2016 essay adapted from his book Luke: That You May Know the Truth.
So in the Gospels when Jesus instructed the disciples to not hinder children from coming to Him, “for to such belongs the kingdom of God,'” He did not say that the Kingdom belongs to those specific children, but those who are “like” them, Hughes explained.
And without their parents, children are utterly helpless, he went on to say.
“A newborn, naked, with flailing hands and feet lifted…
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