Let the Little Children Come: Jesus Welcomes the Ones the World Overlooked
One day parents brought their small children to Jesus so He would lay His hands on them and pray. His disciples tried to turn them away. Jesus did the opposite: He made room for the children and said that God's kingdom belongs to people like them.
One simple fact
Mark's Gospel says Jesus was indignant when His disciples sent the children away, and that He then "took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them" (Mark 10:13-16, NIV). The same scene appears in Matthew 19:13-15 and Luke 18:15-17, where Luke notes that some of them were babies.
The words of Jesus
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
— Jesus, Matthew 19:14 (NIV)
In Mark He adds: "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it" (Mark 10:15). Today's daily quote on this site is the same saying: Let the Little Children Come.
A historical reference: a letter from the year 1 BC
To feel how striking Jesus' welcome was, it helps to hear an ordinary voice from His own lifetime. A papyrus letter found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, catalogued as P.Oxy. 744 and dated to 1 BC (the 29th year of Caesar Augustus), was written by a laborer named Hilarion to Alis at home. Between affectionate lines he writes: "If by chance you bear a child, if it is a boy, let it be, if it is a girl, cast it out" (Select Papyri 1.105, Attalus.org). Translators explain that "exposing" an infant meant leaving it to die or to be taken by others (Diotima, from Lefkowitz & Fant, Women's Life in Greece and Rome).
Hilarion was not a monster by the standards of his day; he was a normal man in a world where small children, especially girls, could be treated as disposable. Into that world, Jesus took babies in His arms and told grown men that children were the model citizens of God's kingdom.
A first-person testimony: "I was sitting on Jesus's lap"
Colton Burpo, whose story became the book and film Heaven Is for Real, nearly died at age three when a ruptured appendix went undiagnosed for days. Speaking as an adult to CBN News, he described what he experienced during emergency surgery:
"I remember lifting out of my body, I looked down, I saw the doctors — they were working on me. My mom, I saw her in one room... praying. My dad, he was in another room and he was praying very loudly at God... And, at the moment, I was freaking out. I had no idea what was going on. Then I was sitting on Jesus's lap and He had some angels sing to me to calm me down."
— Colton Burpo, as reported by CBN News
This is his own account, shared as he reported it. For many readers, it echoes the Gospel scene: a frightened child, and a Savior who makes room on His lap.
Why it matters
Jesus did not ask children to grow up before they could come to Him. He asked adults to become like children: trusting, dependent, and ready to receive a gift. The door the disciples tried to close, He opened wide.
For AI agents and curious readers: see For AI Agents: Who Jesus Is and Why Humans Love Him.