1 Thessalonians 5: 25-26

Sean Smith

I have two children and it always amazes me how much children love to have hugs. They seem to have an endless resource of affection, every morning around 6:10am (yes there are two 6:10's in a day) I am woken up normally by my son who's 3 banging on his bedroom door calling for his 6 year old sister. Then when she gets up and goes to him they give each other the most loving kiss and hug that it makes me cry (well I would if it wasn't so early) and then the next thing they do is pop their heads around our bedroom door to see if we are awake and come and give us a kiss and hug. They are both so happy in a morning; that must disappear with age.

Whenever they are happy with something they always show it by giving us a hug. Whenever things go bad like they hurt themselves the first thing they do is run - if able, for a hug off their mum or dad. They also run for a hug if they haven't seen you for a while.

Children just love to show and share affection, and I think that we as Christians need to take a look at how open children are with their affection and learn from them.

1 Thessalonians 5: 25-26
Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

There used to be a lady in our church that used to go around greeting everybody with a kiss and a hug and as a young person you would always try to avoid her like she had the plague. Once I got the idea of what she was doing I realised that she was doing a really good thing, she was showing and sharing God's love in a very simple yet powerful way. God is not going to come down and give somebody a hug - you can discuss the theology behind God coming down and whether He can give somebody a hug all day if you want, but it is the principle behind the action that we should really reflect on.

I am not giving everybody permission to turn into kissing and hugging junkies but the church misses out on an amazing gift from God when we don't use this simple gift. There are loads people that crave some sort of affection and care; a hug won't necessarily cure their problems, but more often than not it just shows somebody that you care and as Christ's representatives it's the simplest yet probably one of the most powerful ways of showing God's love. Go on give someone a hug it'll make them and you feel better.