One of the most well-known biblical stories is that of Moses, the Hebrew baby set adrift on the Nile in a basket and taken from the river by an Egyptian princess. Moses goes on to become a crucial figure in Israelite history, an instrument of God to free the enslaved peoples from the clutches of Pharaoh, to lead them across the wilderness, and to deliver to them the Ten Commandments. But at the very beginning of his story is a special figure: his sister. It’s Miriam who watches Moses while he drifts in the river, Miriam who boldly approaches the princess, Miriam who offers to fetch a Hebrew nurse for Pharaoh’s daughter (Exod. 2:1–9). God uses a little girl to help carry out his plan to deliver Moses and, through him, all Israel.
This isn’t the only time we see children featured in a special way in God’s divine plan. God spoke to Samuel while he was just a boy learning in the temple and used him to bring his word to Israel (1 Sam. 3). God made Josiah king when he was only eight years old and he reigned in Jerusalem for 31 years (2 Kings 22:1–2), rediscovering “the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord” and renewing that covenant (2 Sam. 23:2–3). God begins working through the great men of the Bible like Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David when they were still young boys.
In the New Testament, both Christ and Paul emphasize that God entrusts his truth to the weak and lowly of this world. In Matthew 11, Jesus prays about the unrepentant saying, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matt. 11:25).
Paul echoes these sentiments in 1 Corinthians:
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Cor. 1:26–29)
This is a great hope for us. We may be weak, but he is strong. We may be low, but he is great. We may be broken tools, small and insignificant, but God knows this—and he plans to use us anyway. Our childlikeness is part of his plan to reveal his glory to the world.
