The Table That Only Has Highchairs

As you all know, we welcome our baptized children to this table. This is because Jesus said unless you are converted and become as little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He says let the little children come to me for of such is the Kingdom of God. This means that the qualification for entering and remaining in the Kingdom of God is childhood. It is not that this is mostly a gathering for grownups but the children can come along if they would like. It is not as though we worship together in the heavenly places despite the squawks and squeals and cries. Actually, God is quite aware of what children are like. He knows their short attention spans, frequent needs, he knows their hurts, their questions, the things that makes them excited. He knows their wiggles. And he looks down at the little children and says, that is what you must be like. And this seems odd to us, this seems strange since we spend so much of the service trying to get them to act like us. We’d like them to sit still like grownups and have straight faces like grownups and take notes on the sermon like grownups and worry about what the people in the row behind them are thinking like grownups do. It’s no problem to work on worshiping. We want our children to love singing, to love listening to the Word read and preached, to shout out their amens with vigor and to love eating the bread and drinking the wine with God’s people. But God says He has ordained strength in their mouths to silence our enemies and every false accusation. Wisdom is justified by her children. So if you’ve been stuffy cranks, you need to repent. Children are not only welcome at this table. You must be a child to participate, and this means resting in the care of your loving Heavenly Father. Put away your worries, your fears, stop worrying about what the people around you are thinking, stop worrying about tomorrow. Rest in the care of your Father. You have a Father and He loves you with an everlasting love. That’s what it means to be His children. That’s what it means to be children. Imagine that this table only has high chairs, and come: eat, drink, and rejoice.