Let the little children come to me

 Psalm 121│Malachi 2.1-16│2 Peter1.16-23│Matthew19.13-15

Psaumes 121 |Michée 2.1-16 |2 Pierre 1.1-16 | Matthieu 19.13-15

 

Let the little children come to me

 

Psalm 121 is one of the only two psalms (the other is 23!) which I can admit I know almost by heart, and that’s largely because both are short and memorably set to music in the Scottish metrical psalter.  You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/RpuuE26BpCs. With its simple message enjoining us to put a child-like trust in the Lord it speaks directly to our fundamental need for reassurance, in all times and in all places, and is probably my favourite.

 

I think it was for this reason I suggested it to my mother and grandmother that we have it as a hymn at my grandfather’s funeral.  He had not had an easy life, being either orphaned or from a broken home in Edwardian England (he never spoke about it); he ended up in prison before his eighteenth birthday and upon release in early 1914 found employment with probably the only organisation that would accept him – the British Army…in which he served for three years until he was wounded and taken prisoner at Passchendaele.  He had a leg amputated in a German hospital before being sent home in a prisoner exchange. 

 

Life for a barely literate, one-legged ex-soldier in the 1930’s Depression cannot have been easy, yet he came through it all as one of the loveliest men I have ever met, married, widowed, re-married happily with children and grandchildren whom he adored and who adored him.  Small children in particular, who recognised a kindred spirit, and, as todays Gospel reminds us, the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

 

 

In memoriam, Arthur X. Clay, 1896-1979

 

Levez les yeux vers les collines et faites confiance au Seigneur.

 

Carol de Lusignan

Image: Private. Used with permission from Carol de Lusignan.