PERHAPS you have often sung "Mothers of Salem," and I wonder if you know that Salem is Jerusalem, the great city in the little land of Palestine. The mothers of Jerusalem, long ago, brought their children to the Lord Jesus. The stern disciples frowned at this, because they thought that Jesus was too busy to be bothered with little children, but the disciples were wrong. Jesus took the little ones up in His arms, put His hands on them and blessed them.
Precious Lord Jesus! How this shows us His loving heart, and how event the wisest of His followers failed to see how much He cared. We can never be wrong in corning near and nearer to Him, and ALL must come as little children.
It is harder for grownups to come as little children. Older people are full of their own thoughts and plans and business, so they very often do not come at all, The grownups of Jerusalem, when the Lord was there, were much the same. Like the people of today they had their plans and their own religion, and they would rather have that instead of Jesus.
Saviour knew that they did not want Him. He knew before He chose Jerusalem long ago, that even His own. people would not have Him, but He loved Jerusalem all the same. If you read Matthew 23, you will find that He told them plainly of their wickedness, but even as He did so, and warned them of the terrible punishment that must fall upon their sinful city, He longed to protect them, just as a mother hen spreads her wings over her little chicks, but they would not come. He even wept over the sinful city as He looked at it, and said, "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth. her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matthew 23:3737O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37).
My little reader, are you one of the little children who will come to Jesus today, just as you are, and hide in His blessed arms and under His sheltering wings? Or are you one who is too wise and too busy to come to Jesus, and who will go right on in your own way —right on to that awful place of everlasting punishment?
The little children who looked up into Jesus' face; that day when He was here on earth, could not say, "He died for me." Now although we cannot look into His face as they did, we know He lives and He loves us, and we can say, "He died for me." Would you not like to be safe in His keeping now, and forever?
Messages of God’s Love 8/14/1949