The Child is Christ

If you receive a child because you love God, you thereby receive Christ, the Son of God, and you receive the heavenly Father who sent Him.

"He took a little child, and set him in their midst, and taking him into his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such little child for my sake, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."  Mark 9:35-36 (Gospel of 25th Sunday Ordinary Time [B])