When you think of a child, what comes to mind? Do you long for those days again? Do you think of a child as special? Are you reminded of an innocence gone by? Have you ever thought you need to return to that innocence as a child of God’s?
As we grow into adults, we often envy a young child. Most of them have no idea what the world is like. They don’t know of the violence. They don’t understand the conniving and backstabbing that goes on in the workplace. They only know their tiny, tiny portion.
We begin to experience what we call the real world as we get into the workplace. The more years of experience we have, the more we see the evil that goes on around us. Honestly, it can make us quite cynical. We can become crass and our hearts can become hardened. We can become so used to fighting for everything we have that we don’t know what it is to surrender.
This is the point Jesus is making in today’s passage. He is stating, when it comes to following Him, we must give up those “adult” feelings and become like a child in our innocence. We are to trust Him fully, without question.
This is no easy task. We have become set in our ways. We may even think our ways are His ways. We’ve heard all the sermons. We’ve heard all the teachings. We think we have applied them in our lives. When we look at a Scripture the pastor is preaching on or a teacher is teaching, we think we already know the answer. If the pastor or teacher comes up with a different application, we immediately disagree, because we already know.
A young child is likely to look at the same thing differently each time, looking to learn something new. If you watch a child play with toys, you will notice that trucks fly just like airplanes, horses talk like people, and the color blue is purple. Now, we may think this is silly and we laugh at their play with a knowing thought that they will find out those things aren’t true as they grow up.
Yet, there is something we can learn from them. We can learn that we must continue to look at things as they look at them. We must look to continue to learn each day. This is especially true when it comes to Jesus. He breaks out human rules. He has set us free to break them as well; not to break laws, but to follow Him freely and accept Him for who He truly is.
I pray we all accept Jesus as a child. I pray we accept Him with an innocence we haven’t felt in a long time. I pray each of us will trust Jesus with our entire heart, much like a young child trusts a parent. Reclaim your innocence when it comes to God. Trust God with all your heart. Yearn to learn. See Jesus with clear eyes.
Matthew 18:2-5 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Marty Pressey 