Ordinary Time

Pause

We are drawn to stories of children. We see ourselves in their faces and we naturally want to care for and protect them.

When children are threatened we want to respond. We want to do...something.

Our children belong to all of us and we each have a role to play in making their lives safe and sustaining. God's justice calls us to this task.

Listen

“Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost."

Matthew 18:10–14

Think

After the abduction of Nigerian schoolgirls, the media reported hundreds of parents longing for their children to come home. They went to look for them by themselves because they felt their government was not taking action. In recent weeks, the world has also watched families waiting on the global community to find a missing airplane, parents crying out for their children as a ferry sank killing hundreds of students, and families waiting to find their loved ones buried in a mine. There are a lot of families waiting for “lost sheep” to be found.

Every day there are children who need someone to be a shepherd and come after them too, even when the media ignores them. The Bible says that children were a symbol of all those who believe in Jesus, but Jesus was also talking about actual physical children when he pointed to “these little ones.” Jesus warns not to despise them—and says that it is not God’s will for little ones to perish. Learn how you can help go after the world’s most vulnerable children and bring them home.

Laura Rector

Pray

Jesus, you care very much for “lost” sheep. Thank you for rescuing me from my own lostness. Help me to seek out others for you. Amen.

Go

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.