One of These Little Ones

I'll always remember meeting a Chinese man holding his baby on a crowded street in 1979 China. Mao had died one year earlier and the devastation he left behind was obvious to our Western eyes. But this man recognized us as believers. I marveled as our group of 16 blonde and round-eyed Finns and Americans stood on that street. He held out his baby and wanted us to pray for his baby and dedicate him to the Lord. I looked into the man's face. He had a large smile and a clear face. "Do you believe in Christ?" I asked. "Yes!" he said clearly, "I am a believer." We had no time for talk. We took the baby and prayed. He was gone. 

The purges of Mao's Long March were of great magnitude. His murderous Cultural Revolution is historic with perhaps 60 million killed. But the quiet radiant life of Christ is the treasure buried in the field. Have you recognized any of God's people lately? Every once in a while you see them. They are there. Sometimes they are the little people, the weak ones God loves. They are gifts, they pass their time without need for recognition. They love you and you do not need to love them back. They simply love you. They go to sleep in simplicity with love in their hearts. Sometimes, we think they do not know what is going on, but actually they are the ones who really know what is going on. They believe and trust in God with love. You cannot really do anything that would diminish their love for you because they are so taken up with God's love. You think they are naive, but actually they are wiser and more discerning than you think. They show up with the baby in their arms because they have been praying for the opportunity.

They know you are one of them when they see you, and you know also the Spirit of Christ in them. They are quiet, powerful people being prepared by God in this life to reign with Him. They are God's treasure in this world.

In a few days we will see a number of them in Budapest at a GGWO conference. They have saved pennies, prayed and traveled miles simply to love each other. They ask for nothing but to see Jesus, to get closer to Him, to hear from Him, to love Him because they know what LIFE is.

Consider this verse regarding our sisters and brothers "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, and were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy :) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Hebrews 11:37, 38).

That verse "of whom the world is not worthy" is sticking with me.