A parent's perspective

Believe it or not, I’ve been accused of being an over protective dad from time to time. As a parent, there is nothing that can get me riled up like something that I perceive as a threat to my kids. Their well being is so important to me. When they were really little, it seemed I constantly worried about them. And even now that they are older, their safety and welfare is still one of my primary concerns. I can take a certain amount of ridicule or attack towards me personally perhaps, but let someone threaten my children in even the slightest way and the bear rises up in me.
You know, as children of God, our heavenly Father has the same attitude towards us. He is very jealous of His children. We saw in our study last week that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven we have to become like children. And then once we become part of His family, Jesus tells us in Matthew 18 the dire consequences of those that mess with His children.
Number one, He says those that mess with My kids, messes with Me. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives Me.” In other words, the way we treat a child of God is the way we treat God. In Matthew 25 the picture is given of those that will stand before God’s judgment throne and give an account for the way they treated Christ. “Truly I say to you, that to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”
Then secondly, He gives a warning. Back in Matthew 18 again, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in Me to stumble, it would be better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.” You better think seriously about causing a child of God to stumble. Those that trespass in that way are going to bring down the wrath of God upon themselves.
Then thirdly, He gives a promise. “For I say to you, that their[these little ones] angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” In other words, we are the apple of God’s eye. And He is watching us constantly and has given His angels charge over us, to protect us and keep us. They are vigilantly watching for the signal from God to step in and deliver us, or punish those that would hurt us. We have the promise from God He will protect us with all the resources of heaven. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
And as a child of God, I take refuge in that. My Father is vigilant. My Father loves me. And because of that, I don’t have to take revenge for myself, “for vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, I will repay”. I’ll let my Father take care of it. But all of us need to be careful not to cause another child of God to stumble.