As This Little Child

Recently I have noticed that my three-year-old daughter, when speaking about one of her siblings, has been prefixing their name with the phrase “my friend.” That caught me off guard when I heard it and has given me pause to consider the love and devotion represented in those two words by a young child. Even though those same siblings often cause her grief and frustration, she sees them as her friends and she is filled with love for them. This led me to review this powerful account of the Savior: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me” (Matthew 18:1-5). Greatness, as seen by the Lord, is not to have worldly power or wealth or popularity or wisdom; rather, it is to have the humility of a little child. The Savior emphasized this to the Nephites as well when He taught them after His resurrection. As His voice came to them in the darkness after the destruction in the land, they heard this: “Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved” (3 Nephi 9:22). He laid down His life for all those who would humble themselves as little children. He said again when He came in person soon thereafter: “And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things” (3 Nephi 11:37). To become pure and loving, patient and forgiving, positive and trusting like little children is to become like Him and prepare ourselves to return to His presence.

                This reminds me of a powerful talk given by President Packer a decade ago. In it he told this story that I have never forgotten: “Some years later in Cusco, a city high in the Andes of Peru, Elder A. Theodore Tuttle and I held a sacrament meeting in a long, narrow room that opened onto the street. It was night, and while Elder Tuttle spoke, a little boy, perhaps six years old, appeared in the doorway. He wore only a ragged shirt that went about to his knees. On our left was a small table with a plate of bread for the sacrament. This starving street orphan saw the bread and inched slowly along the wall toward it. He was almost to the table when a woman on the aisle saw him. With a stern toss of her head, she banished him out into the night. I groaned within myself. Later the little boy returned. He slid along the wall, glancing from the bread to me. When he was near the point where the woman would see him again, I held out my arms, and he came running to me. I held him on my lap. Then, as something symbolic, I set him on Elder Tuttle’s chair. After the closing prayer the hungry little boy darted out into the night.” President Packer told how he related the experience to President Kimball afterwards, and the prophet said to him, “You were holding a nation on your lap. That experience has far greater meaning than you have yet come to know.” Perhaps one way that story has meaning for all of us is that it is the children we should put into the place of greatest importance. Ultimately they are the ones who symbolically belong in that chair of prominence—it is to the children that we should look to know how to become. We can get so caught up in the “important” things of life that we no longer see children as we should and, like the woman of this story, we push them away instead of seeing that it is like them that we need to be. King Benjamin taught us through the words of the angel that we must become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). To become as a child through the atonement of Christ should be our greatest quest in life. I hope that someday I can have the simple love of my three-year-old who sees all around her as her friends, loving and forgiving freely. And I hope that I can strive to receive them with open arms like President Packer, always remembering that “in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).