God's Special Love for the Little Ones

As the elders at Kosmosdale Baptist Church have been faithful to point out in the years I have been a member there, many people in our culture have an over-sentimentalized view of God in which God is thought to be only love, and His holiness, justice, and wrath are ignored.

Given this problem, thoughtful Christians may tend to think that the idea of God having a special love for small children comes about due to such carnal sentimentality; one may come to the conclusion that there is no reason God should have a special love for small children since we are all by nature children under wrath (Eph 2:3).

But the idea that God has a special love for small children does not come about due to wishful thinking, but due to the words of Jesus. After having warned His disciples, "See that you do not despise one of these little ones" on the basis that their angels have a privileged position before the face of His heavenly Father (Matt 18:10), Jesus declares, "So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish" (Matt 18:14).

We need to look into the ramifications of God's special love for the little ones, but the first thing we must do is to joyfully acknowledge that God does have such a love, and that small children are spoken about with terms that are not applied to humanity in general.