suffer the little children

Scripture says that unless we become as little children we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Screaming, bossy, entitled, selfish and bratty. Ah, the kingdom of heaven will surely be amazing. Actually.....I think perhaps those 5 year old sephora boss babe babies didn't exist back then. "My 5 year old doesn't play with toys. She only likes skin care products."

Mama, stop. That is NOT the flex you think it is. (I don't ever want to judge anyone on their parenting, but why, oh why, are we telling 5 year olds they need to be using beauty products? A blind person can see this is a bad idea.)

When I think of little children in biblical times, I think of total dependence. No electronic devices to babysit back then. These babies, toddlers, and small children depended on their parents for everything. They weren't weaned until they were three or four. They relied on their mother for all their sustenance, just like we should rely on the Lord. Paralleling how Christ can give us rest, small children rest and nap often. Children live in a state of awe and wonder, they are innocent in their thoughts. Small children have faith and belief in something outside this world (that we try to suppress or interchange with holiday fables. I saw a headline that said the tooth fairy was leaving $100 due to inflation. I didn't click on it because I sure hope it was rage bait. Although the fae will happily exchange money for a bone any time you want. Intro to Magic is what we are teaching our kids here.)

Children love music. They love to dance and sing. (This could be considered worship if we didn't immediately exchange this love for music with songs about stars and barnyard animals. They are born with a heart to worship their creator, instead, E-I-E-I-O. There's nothing wrong with children's' songs, I'm just trying to show a point that I believe we are born with a desire to worship, and the entertainment industry has latched onto that and will not let go.) 

We need to be like small children who don't live in the twenty first century. Small children without tablets, iphones and laptops. Small children who aren't wearing Sephora and Ulta. Sometimes I think about the verses that says people will be given over to their own devices and I think, "Wow. We do call these things 'devices.'"

In Genesis it says that in the days before the flood people's thoughts were evil continuously. I have given this so much thought over the years, because it says that in the last days it will be like the time of Noah. I do understand that this was a time that the angels shared forbidden knowledge with humans and produced gigantic offspring as well. But I wonder if instead of their thoughts being "MURDER! MURDER! MURDER! STEAL! STEAL STEAL! CHILD ABUSE!!! YEAHHHH SINNNNNN!!!" could they possibly have been taught chants and songs so that there minds were infiltrated with evil thoughts, even if they didn't recognize them as evil?

Earlier this week I was introduced to the new Ice Spice song that says in the chorus, "B*tch, you think you're the sh*t. You're not even the fart."

I have no commentary on this literary masterpiece of our modern era. 

I'm sure this song is playing on radio stations somewhere. I'm sure some small child is hearing this in the background and humming it without even realizing what it says. Although small children today are unfortunately probably too familiar with the words "b*tch" and "sh*t." (These little ones who make up the kingdom of heaven.) So, without even realizing it, our thoughts are probably evil more often than we'd like to admit.

Sometimes when I get a one-lined earworm stuck in my brain for days on end it feels like torture. If that was just that one line from the Ice Spice song, I'd be finding myself thinking about evil continuously, without my consent.