Like a Child

What did Jesus mean when he told his disciples that they would have to become like children to live in God's kingdom? It's a puzzling passage of scripture, but one that we might want to ponder as we begin the season of Lent.

We all started our lives as children. And in Jesus’ opinion, we should have stayed that way! (Mark 10:13-16) Now, Jesus never meant that we shouldn’t get older. We don’t have any choice about that, anyway. Not one of us remains a child forever like Peter Pan. But Jesus did mean that in some ways, children are more ready to receive the Kingdom of God than we older folks are. We’re too wise, too worldly, too sophisticated. In fact, those are the very behaviors that keep us on the outside. We adults often behave like visitors to Kings’ Island who spend the day just walking around the park. Children would never do that! When children visit an amusement park, they ride the rides, enjoy the shows, and indulge in corn dogs and ice cream! Why do we rejoice that we’re saved, accept God’s offer of citizenship in his kingdom, and then just stand on the outside and look in? There are blessings in there that God wants to give to us!

Here’s what I mean. In the Kingdom of God, we’re invited to be honest – honest with ourselves, honest with the people around us, and honest with God. But, let’s face it, being honest is threatening; so we try to fool people into believing that we’re better than we really are. We keep our problems to ourselves. We surround ourselves with “stuff” that makes us look good. We act as though we don’t need anybody’s help, and that we can get through life all by ourselves. But let’s face it, we mess things up on a regular basis; and because we do, all of us have secrets that we wouldn’t reveal for all the tea in China. But children are a lot more honest than adults are. With a child, what you see is what you get. Author Kathleen Norris tells of a little boy who was invited to write a poem. He titled his poem “The Monster Who Was Sorry.” “He began,” says Norris, “by admitting that he hates it when his father yells at him: his response in the poem is to throw his sister down the stairs, and then to wreck his room, and finally to wreck the whole town. The poem concludes, ‘Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, “I shouldn’t have done all that.”’” (From Amazing Grace, 1998) Now that’s honesty. This little boy admitted the depth of his anger in a way that most adults would never think of doing; and because he did, he was able to move through his anger to repentance. In the Kingdom of God, we’re invited to be honest, not so that we can be judged and found wanting, but so that we can face our problems and move through them to a better place! “…the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Children aren’t invested in their own power, either. That’s because they don’t have any power! Children are little in a world made for big people, and they often feel lost and alone. They are laughed at for their foolishness, and criticized when they lack experience. They have no natural defenses; and they know all too well that they are dependent on others for everything that they need. But adults delude themselves into thinking that they are in control of their own lives. That’s why so many people drift away from the church when they grow up. They don’t think that they need God! After all, they went to college, and they have a good job, a Roth IRA, and investments in the stock market. They are ready for anything – or so they think! But when the doctor sits down across a big mahogany desk and says gravely, “I’m sorry. It’s cancer,” suddenly the job and the IRA and the stock investments don’t mean very much. We’re not in control of our own lives. We have to deal with all kinds of problems that we didn’t want and don’t deserve! But in the Kingdom of God, we can always rely on God to meet our needs. We may lose our jobs, and the stock market might tank; but God will walk beside us forever, giving us the strength to face whatever life throws at us. Trusting God like a child means knowing that whatever happens, God will be there for us. “…the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

But maybe the most important thing about children is that they are open to new things! They have potential – loads of it – even though they often don’t realize it until years later. Children can be taught, because they don’t yet think that they know it all. In fact, adults tell them all the time that they really don’t know much of anything! And so, children absorb knowledge like a sponge. Adults, on the other hand, are pretty sure that they already know what makes the world go around. The trouble is that the world they know about isn’t the Kingdom of God. It’s our world, with its greed and its hate and its mixed-up priorities. If we adults want to fit into the Kingdom of God, we have to learn some new things. We have to learn that the most expensive things are sometimes the least important. We can drive a BMW, own a 30-room house, and have 7 figures in our bank account; but without love, none of it counts for a hill of beans. We have to learn that behind our skin color, religion, nationality, and ethnic background, we’re all the same. Children already know that. Put a random bunch of children in a room, and they’ll make friends with one another: black, white, Christian, Muslim, British, Russian, Israeli, or Palestinian. It’s the adults who eye each other with suspicion just because “those people” are different. And we need to learn that we have to die before we can really live. Yeah, that’s a hard one for both children and adults. But it’s the foundation of Jesus’ teaching; and if we aren’t open to at least consider it, we’ll never make it in the Kingdom of God. “Anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. …the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we have to earn our way into God’s Kingdom by behaving like a child. We don’t need any Golden Ticket to get in. God’s Kingdom isn’t like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory that only admits a few select people. On the contrary, we’re all invited to come into the Kingdom with no strings attached! Jesus has opened the door to everyone, everywhere, every time! But the truth is that most of us don’t want to come in. We would rather hang on to our greed, our prejudices, and our misplaced priorities; and none of those things have any place in God’s Kingdom. Only those with the heart of a child will run right in shouting, “Yay! What a neat place to be! And I get to stay here forever!”

During this season of Lent, maybe we could practice being like children again. Maybe we could try being honest with ourselves. Our lives aren’t what we want them to be. But with God’s help, that can change. Maybe we could face up to the fact that our lives are pretty much out of our control. But they aren’t out of God’s control. Maybe we could try one more time to turn our lives over to God. And maybe we could even admit that all the wisdom of the world has only led to war, famine, and suffering; and we could try some of Jesus’ wisdom, instead. “…the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” That’s us, folks. So let’s start living like children – like God’s children.