Receiving the Kingdom as a little child

[Wade]

Mark 10:15 -
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

This verse is really intriguing. Where do we go with this?

4 years ago when one of our daughters was 2 we were over at my in-laws and she found a weight that she was then carrying around. I seen her but hesitated.
She fell with the weight on her finger...
I knew it was bad.
I ran to pick her up. She was crying quite loudly and snuggled in hard to my chest. I pulled her hand away... It looked fine. I turned to the other hand and noticed the deep red blood stain covering half of the top of my shirt... I pulled her hand away while she screamed pain filled words I will never forget, "NO DADDY, NO DADDY..." Below the finger nail was tore almost right off except a little flap of skin holding the end of her finger from falling to the floor. I remember looking at my father-in-law and saying, "Her finger is off..."
My wife took her as we drove to the hospital.
The doctor took one look and said there isn't much we can do here, she needs plastic surgery and we don't have a surgeon like that here. I'll call 4 hours away and then you will have to drive their...
Four hours later we hadn't left and finally got a call from a surgeon they were able to get in contact with. The doctor said that the surgeons main concern was her age...? The surgeon said that she is young enough that we should just tape it back together...
I held my daughter firmly as she fought the pain of getting the freezing needle and then the doctor careful tried to line 'everything' up...
On leaving he said that we would have to come back in a week to take the bandage off and that he wanted us to be certain to make sure to see him. He said he had never heard of healing like this and seemed to have some doubt. He said to be warned that when we come back that it could be black and then they would have to take it off.
"Amazing," came the words from the doctors mouth as he peered at our daughters finger.

It has healed so well that you would have to have it pointed out that the finger nail is a touch crooked and the finger may look just a bit longer but there is no visible scar.

This story coupled with receiving the kingdom as a little child reminds me of the complete forgiveness that children can give that leaves no scar. I want to be healed and forgive like that!

Maybe you have more?...

[temporal1]

i know of different examples.
the most recent was when my granddaughter was born, we noticed a bump at her collarbone!
it did not seem to be painful. her arms, everything seemed to function normally.
my daughter asked about it, was told, "o. fractured clavicle. that's common, it will heal on its own."
i was terrified. the idea!

she's 9 now. it never caused problems. they did not even do an x-ray.

we did not think of googling then:
http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/newb ... -fractures

the earliest event (i don't clearly recall) -
i was 2, it was winter. we had a pot-belly stove in the dining room.
i remember that stove. when we were very sick, we were allowed to sleep near it on the floor to keep warm. it was comforting.

(i was told about this many times in my life.)

they tell me, i was running past the stove, fell on it, my neck was badly burned.
thankfully, i do not remember. the thought of it is awful-enough.

in those days, people did not run to the doctor. my mother tended to the burn wounds.
i believe she said she used Watkins salve on it. i remember there was always a fancy orange tin of it in the house. i remember the smell. and the waxy touch.

the entire wound healed, i never had a scar!
my mother was stunned every time she remembered.
she sometimes would reflect, had they taken me to the hospital, i probably would have had a scar for life. that might have been.

today, they do amazing things to prevent scars. that's another topic!

post-script.
when my mother was in her final days, she revisited that old story about me and the stove.
only this time, she described (how it really happened.)

she forgot (they all) did not tell me the truth about it all along -
she just candidly recalled the time my older brother, Jack, was pulling me in a wagon past that stove, the wagon tipped, i fell on the stove.

i said nothing, just nodded, as i had for decades when she spoke of it.
it was more traumatizing to her/my parents/family than it was to me.

inside, i was, "i KNEW" there was a wagon ride involved!

the details were so repressed, i probably would not have ever remembered on my own.
by then, my dear older brother had been gone for about 10 years.
i would have never been angry about it. it was an accident.

somehow, i have no memory of the trauma, pain, even healing. healing can be painful. it can be itchy. how do you keep a 2 year old from scratching?! .. that would surely cause scars?

to me, God not only provides special physical healing for babies/children, He can also protect their minds. amazing creation.

[KingdomBuilder]

A huge attribute of children that you very, very rarely see in adults is their ability to not assume the worst in people.

[temporal1]

A huge attribute of children that you very, very rarely see in adults is their ability to not assume the worst in people.

true. but they also have an inborn sense of wrong that can be deeply troubling to them. long before they have ability to articulate it.

they are quick to sincerely forgive and forget, tho.
i'm not sure how or when this is lost, but, it's a shame that it is.