Child

Luke 18:15-17 (The Message)

15-17 People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back.

"Let these children alone. Don't get between them and me. These children are the kingdom's pride and joy.

Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."

What would it mean to accept the kingdom, "like a child?"

I'm not sure, but I really do want to find out. After all, Jesus says that "these children are the kingdom's pride and joy."

As a younger man, there was a time when this scripture bewildered me. It confused, and sometimes even frustrated me.

I was pursuing knowledge. I was trying to climb and achieve in the world. How could it be wrong for me to try to "become an adult?" Don't we have to grow up sometime?

I have the sense that the disciples could have felt the same way. They were being very "grown up." They were showing that they were in control of the situation. They'd earned their security clearance. They were acting as Jesus' guardians, and "shooing" these little, unimportant people away from Jesus.

That's when Jesus did what he always does. He turns the tables.

The little ones...they're the most important. The "simple" ones...they're the most aware. These children...they're the heart of the kingdom...and they have the kind of heart that we need as well.

I think I understand this better now.

I've finally lived long enough to give knowledge a run for its money. I've ridden that horse as far as it can go. In every life, faith has to make the long journey from the head to the heart.

When I see the beauty with which my own little children experience and accept the world...and God...I think I begin to have a clue about what Jesus meant.

It's time we all lay down our sense of being proudly "grown up." No matter how much we think we know...there is infinitely more that we don't. The space between us and our children...maybe it's not so far as we'd like to imagine.

And Jesus says that can be a good thing...the best thing.

Prayer: We pray for hearts that are simple, pure and trusting. We ask you to protect our ability to believe, save us from cynicism, and preserve our wonder at your mighty works and steadfast love.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.