Welcome to the Faith in Families Podcast. I'm Ed.
SPEAKER_02This is Jam. I am Jam, and you might be listening to us while having breakfast.
SPEAKER_00Like Annabelle, who gave me a lovely letter when we went to Dangerous Camping.
SPEAKER_02Ah, yes, that's a thing you do, isn't it? It sounds very dangerous. And if you met another listener to the podcast there, it's quite likely she was called Kezia.
SPEAKER_00I did meet a Keziah. Oh. And she had recommended the podcast to her great friend Julia.
SPEAKER_02And that's correctly said, is it Julia? Not Julia. Anyway, do recommend this podcast to your friends so they can start their journey of finding out more about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00So hello Julia, Keziah, Kezia, Annabelle, and anyone else, anywhere else, who's listening to us right now.
SPEAKER_02We're following Jesus around in Mark's Gospel, but before that, let's have a whip around question.
SPEAKER_00Have you ever been stopped from going somewhere because you are too young, too old, too tall, or too anything else?
SPEAKER_02I do, but I want to hear yours first because I'm so confident that mine's going to be better than yours.
SPEAKER_00I'm pleased to hear that.
SPEAKER_02I'm very rarely competitive about this, but I do know that mine's a doozy.
SPEAKER_00Jam says he's got the best whip-around answer going. Yesterday, Jam, I got to go behind a motorboat as I sat on an inflatable thingy and was pulled too quickly around a bay, but I was too heavy to go on it. So I had to ask special permission.
SPEAKER_02Oh dear. Well, I wasn't able to go to Buckingham Palace because I was a boy. Oh jam! My parents were invited to a garden party because of somebody they knew who worked at the palace very briefly. And the invitation was to my parents and their unmarried daughters. I had three sisters, all unmarried. They all went, I'm not an unmarried daughter, so I couldn't go. I mean, I stayed at home and had a brilliant time. But I could have gone to Buckingham Palace, but I wasn't allowed because I was and still am a boy.
SPEAKER_00Jam, that story sounds like it belongs about two centuries ago. How old are you?
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm 50 and this was in my teens. So it's a while back. But I think the rule might have changed since then, but I couldn't go because I was a boy. Anyway, answer this question: what couldn't you do because of a thing?
SPEAKER_00Would you believe that in today's story there are a bunch of people who are simply too young to be allowed to meet Jesus? But that is not where the story ends. Jam, please tell me on pain of some kind of nasty injury that you have fun facts for us.
SPEAKER_02I do, and they are fun facts about little children, especially toddlers. Because did you know, Ed, that once a toddler has mastered walking, they can often do new moves. By 18 months, they can walk backwards and climb stairs with a bit of help, jump where they're standing by the age of two, ride a tricycle at three, skip by four, and hop on one leg by five. Ed, I don't know where moonwalking or jet skiing fits into that, but it's good to know, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00I think the most surprising one, Jam, is you can't jump until you're two.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I guess so. That's what that's what I read on that internet.
SPEAKER_00And Jam, you only tell us things that are fun and they're facts.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and I do actually check them and verify them to make sure. Including this one, which I verified and checked. When they are born, babies are about 20 inches long. By the age of one, they are 30 inches. So they increase by half every year, which means if I carried on growing at that rate, right now I would be three-quarters of a mile long. That's 1.25 kilometers. That's the length of a large airport's runway. It would take you seven minutes to run from my head to my feet, and presumably I will be able to run that distance much faster in a few strides and catch aeroplanes as they try to land. That's a very strange picture I've painted, isn't it, Ed?
SPEAKER_00Oh, but absolutely terrific. It's like toddlers meets George's marvellous medicine and Jam's head sticks out of his roof. Jam, thank you.
SPEAKER_02Now, Ed, are you left-handed or right-handed? Right-handed all the way. Okay, I'm right-handed, but I kick with my left foot, which I gather is quite a useful thing, should you be minded to play soccer, which I am not. Now, when you were one, Ed, you were neither. Oh. Or both. You used both hands equally. However, toddlers start showing a preference for right or left-handedness around two or three, and about 90% of kids end up being right-handed. Fun fact, both of my daughters are left-handed. What are the odds? It's about one in two hundred, apparently.
SPEAKER_00Left-handed people, Jam, are just very special, is what we've learned there.
SPEAKER_02I think so. And finally, Ed, what is your least favourite vegetable?
SPEAKER_00Oh, um, I'm pr I'm probably gonna say spinach, but there are actually some vegetables like kale I never even touch.
SPEAKER_02Okay, no, I think spinach particularly would be my bete noir bugbear. Now, if you were a toddler, you'd have an excuse because toddlers actually have more sensitive taste buds to bitter tastes than adults, which is sometimes a reason why vegetables can seem overwhelmingly unpleasant to them. So that's some excuse for kids and why some children need a lot of persuading to eat certain vegetables.
SPEAKER_00Jam, could you give me an example of a bitter vegetable?
SPEAKER_02Broccoli, sprouts, they used to be very bitter, they're now less bitter. But there's this there's this little bitterness to them which feels very bitter to a toddler, but to an adult, they're used to it.
SPEAKER_00So let's stick to carrots, I think is the big conclusion I've drawn from this.
SPEAKER_02Carrots and garden peas, can't go wrong.
SPEAKER_00Jam, thank you for telling us about toddlers. These are all the reasons that make toddlers amazing, but in today's story, the disciples just did not agree.
SPEAKER_03Our reading is from Mark 10, verses 13 to 16.
SPEAKER_04Some people brought their small children to Jesus so he could touch them. But his followers told the people to stop bringing their children to him.
SPEAKER_03When Jesus saw this, he was displeased. He said to them, Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them. The kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these little children. I tell you the truth, you must accept the kingdom of God as a little child accepts things, or you will never enter it.
SPEAKER_04Then Jesus took the children in his arms.
SPEAKER_00I am surprisingly tall. Strangely tall. I'm gonna say I'm too tall. I hit my head a lot on low doors and sharp corners. I struggle to squeeze into small cars, and almost no bed is long enough. But sometimes it is great being tall. When I go to watch a football game or go to a pop concert, I can always see the action. My head is usually above everyone else's. Sometimes I'm standing next to smaller people and they can't see anything. Everyone wants the best view of the action. To be close to the stage or the pitch, to have a really good view. The good seats with the best views are the most expensive. Important people and the people with money get to be at the front. And other people can't come too close. In today's story from Mark's Gospel, you heard about the crowds of people coming to hear Jesus speak. The disciples were trying to organize the crowd. They had to decide who should get really close to Jesus, having the best view, and who should stay well back, not able to see a thing. Let's hear how they decided who should get to the front.
SPEAKER_01Right, you lot. I know you all want to meet and greet with Jesus, but there's so many people, we can't get you all in today. So just the important one. Okay, uh, you three up here. Sorry, can you move to the side place? Right, it isn't working. Right, okay, head out. No children allowed, no you, yeah, get to the back. No trade for you. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00But Jesus wasn't having any of it. No, listen to what he told the disciples.
SPEAKER_03When Jesus saw this, he was displeased. He said to them, Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them.
SPEAKER_00So all the children, the toddlers, the teens, they all piled in the tiny ones, the small ones, and the unimpressive ones. In they came, right to the front. They got the best seats in the house. The disciples thought important and impressive adults should come first, not the children. But Jesus is clear. Children will always be welcome with him. And then Jesus explains why children are welcome. In fact, listen hard. Jesus wants us to understand how any of us can get the best seats in the house. Parents too. Right up next to him. Listen.
SPEAKER_03The kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these little children. I tell you the truth, you must accept the kingdom of God as a little child accepts things, or you will never enter it.
SPEAKER_00Jesus says, Come to me like a child, knowing you need his help, expecting him to love you, trusting him completely. Have you ever seen a baby in a high chair being given lunch when they're really hungry? Their parent knows the food they like and the food they need. They prepare it and they give it to their precious child. The child trusts them. The child doesn't ask what they've put in it, the child doesn't cook the pasta for themselves or cut up the cooked carrot. Jesus says, if we want to be in his family, then we trust him. We depend on him. We stop trying to do it ourselves. We let him get us into his family. We don't need to bring a list of reasons why he should love us. We don't need to show him all the things we have done, the good marks on our spelling test, or the names of the people we've been kind to. Just come. Because Jesus says there is room at the front for you. Jesus welcomes everyone who comes to him with childlike faith. Hands out, ready to receive. I know a little boy who worries a lot. He worries about the unkind words he said to his brother. He worries about how he will explain it to his mum. He worries that his dad will be angry. He worries about where he'll come in the class. I don't think he realizes that Jesus says to him, Up you come. Sit next to me. I know what you've done. I know what you haven't done. This seat here is for you. Let me pray. Dear Father God, thank you that Jesus welcomes children and wants us to come to him. Help us to know that we can depend on him, trusting him to welcome us. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Amen.
SPEAKER_00Under fives, who did Jesus want right next to him? Fives to sevens, what did Jesus say to his disciples? Over eights, how can we all be like a little child? Over elevens, does it get easier or harder to be like this with Jesus as you get older?
SPEAKER_02You can have a chat about that now, in which case press pause. But we're gonna carry on and we're gonna go back over to our podcast within a podcast.
SPEAKER_04I'm Jessica Seeker, and this is the Seeking Jesus Podcast with me, Jessica Seeker, celebrity podcaster. And yes, I'll admit it, I have won awards. And if there's one thing I've learned over the years, is that it is really important to make a good impression. And so when I finally track down Jesus, I need to know exactly what I'm going to say. And when he hears what I've prepared, I think he'll be impressed.
SPEAKER_03No, he won't. What? There isn't a special sentence to say. There isn't some clever thing you have to remember when you meet Jesus. But I've memorised the Ten Commandments! You don't need that. Commandment one you shall have no other dogs before me. Gods, not dogs! You got it wrong. Disaster! Oh Jesus won't stand for that! He kinda will. It's not about how clever or important you are. He accepts little children. I just talked to some who were playing with Jesus. He's here! I need to be ready! How do I look? Will he be struck by my beauty? It doesn't matter. Anyway, he's not here anymore.
SPEAKER_04Missed him again. But the kids said they had great fun with Jesus. Yes, but children. And I don't want to offend any listeners when I say this. Children are small and annoying, sometimes smelly, covered in jam, bits of fluff.
SPEAKER_03Jesus doesn't care about any of that. Apparently, he said to let the little children come to him. In fact, anyone who comes to Jesus should come like a child. What? Covered in jam and bits of fluff. No, his point is that children get it. They come to Jesus without anything to offer. They know they can't do it alone, but they're ready to trust the one who can help. But most adults think they have to do something, say something, or be someone. So what do I have to do now? Nothing. We just need to talk to him, and so the quest continues. I think we can just talk to him by praying.
SPEAKER_04We go on seeking Jesus, going where his trail takes us, knowing that we have what it takes. We don't need anyone else to succeed. Until next time. I could murder a jam sandwich right now.
SPEAKER_03Don't murder? That's one of the ten commandments.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I thought it said don't murmur, which is one of the ten rules of podcasting. Clear, loud voice, Abby. Strong words.
SPEAKER_03I'll bear that in mind.
SPEAKER_02You can sing along to that by finding a link in the show notes.
SPEAKER_00We love being here doing podcasts. As usual, everything we're telling you about, you can find a free downloadable resource on our website, faithinkids.org. Look for Jesus Saves, the second half of Mark's Gospel. And you can always email us podcast at faithinkids.org. We love hearing from you. Where are you? How are you doing? What's strange?
SPEAKER_02And what are you loving? Two episodes down, but we've still got five more to go. It's very exciting. Thanks very much for listening. Until we speak to you next time, Cheerio.
SPEAKER_00Bye bye. Under fives, who did Jesus want right next to him? Fives to sevens? What did Jesus say to his disciples? Over eights, how can we all be like a little child? Over elevens, does it get easier or harder to be like this with Jesus as you get older?