Behold Your Little Ones

Today is my dad’s birthday—Happy birthday Dad! Two days ago, I drove with my youngest daughter (almost six years old) to visit him and go to lunch. Before we left, I had her pick a happy birthday coloring page to print, and she colored it for her grandpa on the way down. As we drove, she spent a long time coloring it. She said at one point as she colored, talking mostly to herself, “I love my grandpa. That’s why I picked one with hearts.” We had a great visit together, and I was grateful to be able to enjoy the wisdom of my father and the goodness of my daughter. It was kind of the end of an era because yesterday she started full-time kindergarten. It is sad to see her growing up so fast and knowing that the days of having small children in our house are quite numbered. She is so pure and loving that it is frightening sending her out into the world. I wish we could just keep her little forever!

            Some of these thoughts led me to read again the story of the Savior’s visit to the Nephites recounted in 3 Nephi 17 when He blessed the little children. After He decided to “tarry a little longer” with the people at the end of His first day among them, He healed all that were “lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that [were] withered, or that [were] deaf, or that [were] afflicted in any manner” (v7). After these incredible miracles, Mormon recorded that He “commanded that their little children should be brought” (v11). We know that there were 2500 people in total there. We of course don’t know how many of those were “little children,” but in the current world population, about 25% of people are aged 0-14. If we take half of that to represent the “little” children, and if that is similar to the makeup of this Nephite and Lamanite society, that would mean there were about 300 little children that the Savior called to come to Him. What an incredible sight that must have been to see these innocent, faithful children brought to Him. Mormon described how He arranged them, “So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him.” From this description, it seems to me that He set the children around Him in a complete circle, and then around them were their parents and the rest of the people. So perhaps there were two circles surrounding the Savior, one with the little children and the other (larger) circle made up of everyone else. Any of the adults looking at the Savior would have had to see Him through the children.

            It is interesting to me what the Savior did next. For those who haven’t read the account recently, if they were asked, they would likely say that He blessed the children. He did that, but that’s not what He did immediately after organizing the children around Him in a circle. Mormon recorded, “Jesus stood in the midst, he commanded the multitude that they should kneel down upon the ground. And it came to pass that when they had knelt upon the ground, Jesus groaned within himself, and said: Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel. And when he had said these words, he himself also knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him” (v13-15). He prayed, and His audience wasn’t the children in particular; rather, it was the rest of the multitude who were especially moved by what He prayed: “And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father; And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father” (v16-17). It struck me that as this people were watching the Savior and listening to Him pray this unspeakably powerful prayer, it was through their children that they saw Him. Perhaps one of the reasons this prayer was so impactful to them was because they had their eyes both on Him and the children around Him.

            It was after this prayer for everyone that Jesus then turned specifically to the children. We read, “And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. And when he had done this he wept again; And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones” (v21-23). What a powerful statement, and it was the final one He made to them in this chapter: “Behold your little ones.” Perhaps the message to those of us who have “little ones” in our lives is that the best way to see Him is to see them. Surely nothing will help us see and feel and understand the goodness and purity and love of Christ as seeing those traits in the children around us. I love how Elder Holland put it in the most recent general conference: “Sisters and brothers and friends, at the top of the list of the most beautiful images I know are babies and children and youth as conscientious and priceless as those we have referred to today. I testify that they are images of the kingdom of God flourishing on earth in all of its strength and beauty.” I hope that I can more fully behold my little ones before I have no more little ones at home to behold.