The Joy of Being a Child

Father recently showed me that I learned at an early age how to carry adult burdens and worries but now at 43 years old I have become overloaded.  In the midst of my anxiety, worry, and fear I knew Father was at work but it seemed difficult to see.  I sensed the Father pointing to the joy my kids had as I drove them to school over being able to hide their hands in their other sleeve.  Such a simple thing yet they took such joy and they laughed about it.  In my fleshly seriousness these seemed silly, yet their joy over something so simple is contagious.  Could it be that they really have the freedom and I somehow lost this as I took on adult burdens as a child?  Jesus says in Matthew 18:3-4 "And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  In our self-sufficient, competitive, and independent society we do not value the dependence of children, we can't wait till they can get older and do things on their own.  We are irritated with their silliness, their lack of focus, their distracted wander about the simplest things, their unending questions and curiosity, their unending needs, and their constant mistakes (from our view).  I speak not only for the society but also from my own experience as a parent, yet they seem to have a greater understanding of the Kingdom of God than I do at times.  Instead of me always seeking to teach them, I realize that I can learn from them.  In these passages Jesus is not only inviting us to become childlike but says it is necessary to experience the Kingdom of God.  It is no wander the serious and learned religious pharisees of the day took such offense at Jesus.  What an in your face rebuke to have Jesus grab a couple of children and point to them as an object lesson for the Kingdom of God.  I am sure these were not the special perfect children that only exist in very serious and image driven families, these were a couple of snot-nose, silly, and care-free children of a more agrarian society.  Here is the context of Jesus teaching the disciples about the Kingdom of God by pointing to the children, Jesus was with Peter and they were going into the temple.  When Peter is challenged by the collectors of the temple tax if his teacher pays the temple tax, Jesus presents a question to Peter about paying the temple tax.  Jesus ends up saying as to not cause offense, go down to the sea cast in a hook and pull out the first fish and open it's mouth to get the shekel for the temple tax.  It is as if the Father is laughing at their temple tax by the instructions He gives through Jesus to get it from a fish.  This is outlandish, strange, and even childlike.  A perfect lead in to teaching the disciples about the Kingdom of God through children.  Then the challenge is to humble themselves and become like one of these little children.  I find in my own life and many others that much of our pain and hardship is caused by trying to be strong, independent, knowledgeable, wise in our own eyes, and not appear foolish.  We have orphan hearts and are trying to be strong rather than repent become like little children and admit how weak and needy we really are.  Yet Jesus in His first public sermon begins with the Beatitudes, the first being "Blessed are the poor in spirit for their is the Kingdom of heaven."  It is through humility which means being connected to our desperate need for Jesus and a loving Father that positions us to receive grace.  In 1 Peter 5:5 we are told "For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)—[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble."  I heard an evangelist, Leif Heitland, say "I am a little boy with a BIG Dad."  How offensive to our independent, handle everything, self-sufficient world, yet how refreshing to go back to childlike trust.

In Abba's Big Arms,
Bret