Angels and Little Children

Kurt provides a thought provoking quote about the interaction between little children and the angels around them. The innocence and lack of worldly concerns children experience results in a different relationship than adults have with angels - a different but interesting and applicable thought to ponder during the Christmas season. -Editor.

Dear Parents of Young Children,

I believe in angels. I believe my dear wife was and is an angel now too. And I believe she and other angels are around little children like yours. I believe you can feel angels’ presence radiating through a child’s smiling face and see it sparkling in a child’s eyes. And last Sunday the high pitched voices of two little boys saying the Lord’s Prayer in church in the row in front of me pulled at my heart and brought back tender memories of our own family when they were young, as we knelt together in prayer with them.

So you can understand why the following entry in Swedenborg’s journal of his Spiritual Experiences especially caught my attention when I came across it the other day while translating his index to his journal.

It may seem amazing to others, that the angels discern in little children a much more abundant and better understanding of matters, from their thoughts, prayers and words, than they do in adults, who think they grasp more perfectly the meaning of the words and the subjects.

Yet it is very true, because nothing in the little one's mental imagery is yet closed off by falsities, nothing is yet stained and defiled by passions and hatred, there is nothing carnal, such as adults have, but something innocent. So their ideas are open, even if not to them, yet they are to the angels, who have much more enjoyment from them than ever from any adult, who by falsity and passion is engrossed in worldly and bodily concerns. So how very true it is, ‘You may praise the Lord from the mouth of little ones’ [Ps. 8:2, Matt. 21:16].

The more we grow up and become immersed in worldly and bodily matters, the more our every idea becomes closed toward heaven. And it is not opened except in those in whom the Lord deems it fitting. From this one may understand what it symbolizes that Adam was cast out of Paradise, and that guards were placed before the paradise and the tree of life [Gen. 3:24].

With myself I have also observed, by actual and very plain experience, that the angels received a more perfect understanding of the mental images when I was not mixing in my own thinking, but only seeing that they were open toward heaven, and that the angels were thereby understanding inward matters. Then the mental image was more open than when I myself seemed to enter at the same time into the inward contents of it.

I was surprised also that when I had no understanding of certain matters, or was paying no attention, I then sensed that the angels had a more perfect one. From this it is also clear that the angels receive a still more perfect understanding from little children who do not understand what they are praying.

This may seem surprising to anyone, and yet it is very true, and borne out to me by actual, plain, and quite a lot of experience. 1748, 10 May. (Spiritual Experiences 1923–1925)

How precious the presence of angels is to a child’s life. Through them the Lord can impart feelings that will remain with and inspire that little human being forever. At this time of year especially Jesus' words come to mind: “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Mark 10:14-15)

With loving best wishes to you all for the Christmas season,

Kurt Nemitz

Kurt Nemitz

The writer of this letter is a priest of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, which has just published his 673 page translation of Vol. 4 of Swedenborg's Spiritual Experiences. Although he has degrees from both Lehigh University and Harvard Divinity School he feels that he got his most significant education from the Pittsburgh New Church Elementary School and the Academy of the New Church Boys School, College, and Theological School. A widower since Nov. 16, 2009 , he and his wife Melinda–who served as secretary at the Academy's Girls School– had six children, some of whom whom grew up in Stockholm, Sweden; Denver, Colorado; and Bath, Maine (where the snow was the best, by the way). His marriage was and is dear to him, and because he feels that the institution of marriage is so vital to his and all nations and is now under vicious attack, he has recently written and hopes people will ask for his clear pamphlet entitled, "A Theological Argument for Heterosexual and Monogamous Marriage, from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg."