Be Still And Know

Mark 9:37 I often think that the most crucial ministry in any church is in the hands of the welcomers, those wonderful people who stand at the door of the church and welcome people as they arrive. This verse helps us to understand the importance of welcoming. When we welcome people what we are actually doing is welcoming the Lord himself, and if we are welcoming him then God the Father is also being welcomed. Jesus used the illustration of a little child for a very clear reason. At the time, children were seen as being of no significance. They had no power and lacked any legal status. The attention that Jesus gave to children was completely out of line with the thinking of his day. When the disciples famously tried to push away the children, it was their way of showing respect to their rabbi. They assumed that Jesus wouldn’t want to be bothered by noisy children. How wrong they were. Jesus turned their thinking upside down and said that when they welcomed the people who were considered the lowest and least in