Jesus can say the simplest of things and say the most profound.  Contrary to the claim in the commercial “bigger is better” when we do the smallest things in the right way we receive the best.  When we receive a child, we receive Christ, yet not Christ, but the Father.  When we humble ourselves through repentance, we receive Jesus.  When we humble ourselves to ask for the Holy Spirit, we receive the baptism in the Spirit.  And when we humble ourselves to do little things well, when we humble ourselves to treat the outcast and forgotten with love, dignity, and respect, we receive the Father.  That is how to get to the place where the blessed Trinity is living and moving in your body, soul, and spirit.  In Matthew chapter ten Jesus says that he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.  In Mark we learn that it is by embracing the poor, meek, and lowly, that you receive Christ and not Christ, but the Father.  To come to the fullness of God we must bow to the poor and be their servants as Christ came not to be ministered to, but to minister. 

    There is a pecking order here however.  We must be born again first.  We must be baptized in the Spirit second, and thirdly we must overcome the temptation to be “big” by rubbing elbows with the orphan, the widow, the poor and outcast, to receive the Father.  That Jesus is telling us that by receiving a child, an outcast and a nonperson, you receive the Father, he is telling us how he, himself,  received the Father.  In John six when Jesus perceived that they would force him to be king, he departed to a lonely place.  His ministry was a street ministry.  His life in service to the sick and the poor.  He made himself available by consciously choosing not to be “big”.  “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.”  “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted and he that exalted himself shall be brought low”  By staying small, you will receive the best.  By yielding to the temptation to be big, you already have your reward, worldly fame. but much less than the best.  Only by receiving the Father has your journey brought you to a place of complete sanctification where God can do with you anything that he wants whether small or big.  But until you receive the Father there is still much to be done and unless, like Christ, you serve the poor, you miss the ultimate reward. 

    So receive a child today and receive the best! 

            Amen