Is Spiderman In Your Hymnal?

Each morning before my three young boys head off for school, we spend a little time singing songs of praise and in prayer in devotion to God. Because of this, the boys have a pretty substantial backlog of memorized songs. While preparing for Sunday morning services when my youngest son, Donovan, was still four years old, I overheard him singing snatches of The Lily of the Valley while he was getting dressed in his room. I walked up to him, gave him a great big hug, and said, "You really like that song a lot, don't you? Would you like to sing it in church this morning?" He gave me a great big bear hug in return, looked up to me, and said, "Yes, but I like Spiderman better!"
The innocence and honesty of the very young is a wonderful and delightful thing to behold. Is it any wonder that in referring to children, Jesus said, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me: for to such belongs the kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 19:14)? Who among us who are adults has not at one time or another longed to recapture those precious moments in time when we were still innocent, and everything about our world was new and exciting, and wished that we could somehow restore?
It is this state of being that God longs for His lost sheep to return, for on another occasion when Jesus was speaking He said, "Truly I say unto you, except you turn, and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 18:3-4)
God wants to be our Father. He longs for us to come to Him for protection: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!" (Matthew 23:27) In describing the love the Father has for the lost Jesus used the metaphor of a father providing for his child relationship to do so. "Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father Who is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Matthew 7:9-11)
Our repentance and returning to God as a trusting, humble child is sought so much by the Father that is causes great happiness around His throne when one does come home to Him: "Even so, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents." (Luke 15:10)
May the Lord bless you!