GodReflection: What Make God Smile?
And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10:16).
There is one aspect of the Santa Claus myth that even as an adult still draws me. I love the image of his outstretched arms that invite children to climb upon his lap.
It’s a mutual extension of arms. Countless times you’ve seen it—the little 
child with arms raised high with great anticipation of a warm lap and a welcome embrace.
Why is it so hard to ascribe personality to Jesus who took the form of a man? Since we are told by Luke that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man, I assume people enjoyed his company.
If he came to reflect a picture of God, wouldn’t it be assumed he wants us to know we can see God when we see Jesus?
Children are frequent guest throughout the Jesus narrative of the four gospels. They are specifically mentioned as Jesus feeds the two crowds of the five thousand plus and the four thousand plus.
A special note was made that it was the children who were shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” which provoked Jesus to say to his adult audience, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
His invitation was “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Time and again he looked at the qualities of children who so readily sought his warm lap and from their example taught his adult listeners, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus message to me and to everyone who has walked upon the soil of earth is: “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Just as Jesus opens his warm embrace and his lap to little children through him we can climb into the lap of the Holy Father.
Back to the personality of Jesus. Can’t you see it must have been his smile that put the children at ease? His stern expressionless face portrayed by artist would never attract children. Rather, his friendly smile and kind eyes called out to them. I suspect the sight of a child fueled his smile.
So, what makes God smile? If I learn anything from Jesus, I conclude God must smile each time He sees one of His children approach.
Obviously, he made a big impression on the apostle John. As an old man who still has story upon story to share from the days he walked with Jesus and saw his love for 
children, I would guess it made the old apostle smile to pen: See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
Don’t you imagine you and I would cause Father God to smile if only we would approach Him, reach for His extended arms and crawl upon His lap?
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on God Smiles When Children Approach
Gary@Godreflection.org
http://www.GodReflection.org
http://www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com
God is the Eternal Paradox. My little human brain cannot wrap itself around the contrast poles of God’s love for His created ones and His DNA of justice. On the one hand He loves eternally AND on the other hand, with the gavel of justice He will sentence those who refused His love to eternal damnation.
eighteen-century down to the 20th-century that encompassed the first five decades of my life.
Over the next few posts I want to explore the soft tenderness of Creator God. The God who wants me to call Him, Father. The God who understands my humanness. The God who loves me. I want to circle around the concept of what makes God smile?
As I begin these post in an attempt to draw on the nature of a Holy God as Father I plan to circle around various scenarios that must bring a holy smile to His face.
As I bring to a close the attempt made in this series of posts to reflect on When God Calls, I am mindful of my limitations to wrap my brain and my heart around the depth and breadth of this topic.
However, His calls are abundant and come into our lives through the various bandwidths whereby we received communication and process reality. Thus, often the calls go unnoticed as God’s voice. We ascribe it to a thought or a random action. That fact alone gives value to what might seem the insignificant decisions faced over a lifetime.
Throughout our walk of significance, God calls upon us time after time to increase our trust in Him. At each juncture we answer yes or no.
After reflection on God’s calls through this series of post, I come away with the acute desire to be more attentive His voice. I want to turn up my hearing aids, clean my glasses, and adjust my heart strings to become a better receptor when God calls.
In my last post I closed with a faint echo of God’s call here in my sunset years. Let me make one more observation.
rooms may have two or three clocks to be within easy glance day or night.
beat is in sync with His.
were only fulfilled centuries later.
I don’t intend for this post to sound over-dramatic.
In most churches where I have worshipped there are numerous gray and white aged heads assembled. In one of those congregations the elderly members were in such abundance that it was often declared to be their last stop prior to eternity.
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 
Hymns that paint the promises of God for now and in the next life make their entrance and exit across my consciousness as they create a pull from my heartstrings.
My phone is about to ring. It’s a nagging thought. It’s a faint voice generated from the core of my soul. Is God about to call me to ask that I re-up my trust?
God’s call to trust is tied tightly with our earth walk. The good news is each time I am called to re-up my trust I morph a tad more into the likeness of the Holy. The bad news is I must step off the ledge and trust God with the darkness of the unknown for growth in His likeness to take place.
Prior to this post I went to the internet to find a life expectancy calculator.
During my so called productive years I was at least under the allusion that I was in control. Mostly, I went where I wanted, when I wanted, and how I wanted.
Within that echo I faintly hear the call to re-up my Trust in His provision and care. There is a sense in which I find myself on a stretch of life’s trail that is unknown.
I find I am now in uncharted waters. Never have I been so close to eternity’s door. Before, my intellect knew life to be a progression toward the next reality but there was a sense of prolonged distance that kept the transition out of sight and away from my daily walk. What was once a distant concept is now casting its shadow in the headlights.
I am close to the end of Timothy Keller’s book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. By the way, this is one of those books everyone needs to 
read to understand how to better navigate our life’s walk.
designated gifts: to build and to create. Those skills allowed my contribution to make God and His Son Jesus known to a small portion of that great city.
Creativity and activity filled the agenda. It was over this timeframe when I began to get a sense of what it meant to trust God.
God. I will still learn and do, but my major focus as I see the sun moving toward the horizon, is to be. 