Whoever humbles himself like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
One way that we humble ourselves like children is by entrusting ourselves to the guardians that the Father has given to watch over us. This greatly pulls against the desires of the flesh to be seen as the greatest. We all tend to insist so much on the management of our own lives that reliance on God and his providence is typically only a fallback plan for when all else fails. It is the final contingency. How might things look different if the starting place from which we made our decisions was one in which we knew we were loved and protected?
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
It is the small who receive the protection of God. This is not because God is himself too proud to share his protection with those who are proud. It is because those who are proud do not open themselves to the gifts that only little ones can receive.
If we insist on adulting the world will eventually shake us and strip us of illusions as it did for Job. But we can learn the lessons of Job without having to learn them the hard way. We can recognize the one who has "commanded the morning and shown the dawn it place". In our illusions of strength we try to make an answer to God. But as little ones we can put our hand over our mouth and not do so even once.
Being little ones will not necessarily exempt us from suffering. Even great sufferings like that of Job have been permitted to little ones. Therese, who was among the smallest, still suffered death to a painful disease. And she was by no means unique. The LORD is calling us to be small enough to let our guardians watch over us even at such times. He wants us to know that they are there holding us in place even when it seems that we have been abandoned. He wants us to have a childlike assurance that these guardians will bring us through to eventual victory. They did, the world could not see it, for Therese. They will for us.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
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