They were at that state where they liked being carried around. They enjoyed curling up on my lap, and they especially liked receiving attention. It was a lovely picture until one saw how cousins behave when an uncle wants to lavish equally his attention on each niece or nephew. Suddenly my lap became a battleground. With one toddler pushing another toddler away, sometimes even using me as backboard from which to kick at others who would like to share in Uncle Robert's attention.
T here is something scandalous in every communication of the gospel.
It is very important that the church hear and learn from the Word of God. For it is the church who has learned to rejoice in that very scandal which belongs to the gospel. The scandal is the universality of God's love. H undreds of years before Christ the prophet Isaiah plead with the people of Israel to understand the mysterious will and purpose of God. That message was based on God's promise to Abraham, recorded three times in the Book of Genesis.