Snowstorms are for Children!
Devotional for Sunday, January 25, 2026 – Snowstorms are for children!
Song: Lord from Sorrows Deep I Call, by Matt Papa and Matt Boswell: find it on YouTube by clicking here.
Song (particularly for children): Jesus Calms the Storm, by The Getty Girls, Keith & Kristyn Getty, Sandra McCracken, Joni Eareckson Tada: find it on YouTube by clicking here.
Click here for a family worship resource provided by Children’s Ministry Director, Carrie Coard.
Scripture reading: Mark 10: 13-16 (NIV)
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
I’ve always loved the image of this account in Mark’s gospel—Jesus is teaching the crowds and parents are bringing their children to him for a blessing. Meanwhile the disciples, as often happens, completely miss their Lord’s heart and start hindering the very people Jesus wants to welcome in the name of helping him do the things they think are more important. We learn so much from their well-intentioned failures.
Children often interrupt. For our efficiency-driven culture, children and their needs can be seen as an inconvenience. Perhaps this is why we have for decades had a proliferation of gadgets, technologies and services geared toward making children less inconvenient. It makes me think of a silly video by one of my favorite youtubers, “Dude-dad,” in which he designs and builds a contraption for automating the process of changing a dirty diaper complete with a clean-up power washer for the baby’s bottom and a blow torch incinerator for the dirty diaper (you can see it by clicking here). We despise inconvenience and time-consuming messy activities that SEEM to bear little lasting value.
Yet Jesus–the eternal son of God, the one who confounds the religious leaders and by his teaching and self-sacrifice reveals the kingdom of God–he welcomes the apparent inconvenience of little children. His disciples don’t understand this—they see the parents bringing their children for a blessing as beneath their Lord and as a distraction from his mission so they rebuke them and try to send them away. Although we may read this passage and look down on the disciples, it’s always wise to slow down and ask, “how are we like them?” In what ways do we miss the heart of Jesus as we try to receive the kingdom of God as independent adults who already know what’s most important and best rather than as dependent children who simply trust Jesus?
On one level, the passage directly applies to the way we approach Christian worship. If worship is (as I believe scripture presents it to be) the act of all God’s covenant people in dialog with God renewing their covenant relationship with him as we receive his promises and offer our praise, it must also be an act in which children (who are part of the covenant community) are invited to be present in—even when they can’t fully understand what’s taking place. The presence of their occasional sounds and wiggles are welcome because children are welcome as children, and more than that, they are called to be present as much as is feasible.
But this parable also, and perhaps more centrally, relates to our own hearts and the way we think about the kingdom of God. Jesus says that only those who receive the kingdom like a little child can enter it. What does it mean to receive the kingdom as a child? A young child (particularly those in a safe home—as we are safe with God) trusts their parents and receives the gifts that are given without analysis or debate. An infant receives nourishing milk and care without thought to its cost and is untroubled by the inconveniences and inefficiencies of life. The child just receives. For a child, love looks like surrender and dependence on the one who cares for them no matter what’s happening in the world around.
Today, we’ve cancelled our worship service due to a snowstorm and many of us feel the pangs of the inefficiency and lost productivity snow and ice-covered roads will inevitably cause. Some of us fear what might happen if we lose power. While being prepared is wise, many of us will go a bit overboard in finding ways to control the inconvenience by technologies and perhaps rushing too quickly to drive roads not yet made safe (be careful out there). Some of us will be motivated to do this by actual necessity—like jobs in law enforcement, healthcare, or national security or by urgent medical needs (I’ve been there, I get it). Others will do this out of the internal restlessness borne out of a disordered culture deeply discontented with human limitations and inefficiencies. As our lives are slowed down by this storm, whatever your personal situation, I encourage you to take an hour, or a day, and slow down. Receive the kingdom of God as a child—as one who cannot build the kingdom by our efforts but who instead receives it as a gift from a heavenly Father who loves us and holds our lives and futures in his hands. Accept how a snowstorm merely reveals what has always been and will forever be true of you—you’re finite, dependent on God and subject to the constraints of the world he created and gave us to enjoy. David says it well in Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” The goal of growth in Jesus is not to need him less, but to rest in him more fully–it’s to become more like a child in the humble recognition of our need and honest comfort with our weakness.
You cannot control the world or beat back its chaos with plans and technologies any more than you can stop the snow and ice from falling. Today I invite you to come to the Lord like a child—worship him in prayers of thanksgiving, supplication, praise, lament, and longing. Spend time with your family if they’re close, call a loved one you haven’t spoken to in a while, check in on your neighbors, light a fire in the fireplace, be patient with your children, go for a walk in the snow, go sledding, enjoy the beauty of a world you cannot control but which God rules and reigns over for your good. Embrace your inability and dependence that the snowstorm reveals for a time. The kingdom is the Lord’s and he holds its blessings out to those who can accept and receive them as children who trust their Father. God is good all the time; and all the time God is good.
Amen
As a side note, if you have a need for prayer or support during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here for you and will do our best to support and care for you as we are able and as the Lord provides.