BECOMING LIKE CHILDREN

Summer 2021 | Volume 15 Issue 9

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

Wait a minute! As parents we spend quite a bit of time and energy trying to get our children to grow up and act like mature adults, and then Yeshua says that we are the ones who need to change. Not just change but become like little children!

I remember when our grandson pitched his first fit at about 14 months old. It was hysterical! He threw his entire 28 pounds on the floor, balled up his fat little fists, and screamed at the top of his lungs until tears and snot were everywhere. I laughed until I thought I would cry. I wonder if G~d looks at us and laughs when we behave the same, and believe me we do.

We like to think that the things we adults get angry about are so much more important than the toys and treasured objects that children fight about. But are they really? A thousand years from now, when we have long since left this earth for our eternal home, how much will it matter whether we won or lost that argument? How much will it matter whether we got those few extra dollars? How much will it matter whether some jerk crumpled our fender?

If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that in many ways, we have never stopped acting like little children. We still get upset about things that, from G~d's perspective, are nothing more than children's playthings. We still forget that other people's feelings are much more important than the cool "toys" they have--and we wish we had. We still forget that it is not what people think of us and how they treat us that is important, but rather what we think of them, and how we treat them. We still forget that in the end, the only thing that really matters is how well we have followed the L~rd's commandment to love one another as He has loved us.

As far as the L~rd is concerned, we are all little children. In the short span of years that we have here on earth, we barely have time even to begin growing up spiritually. We barely have time to quit squabbling and learn to be nice. In fact, to all eternity, we small, limited human beings will never be more than children in the eyes of a G~d who is infinite love and infinite wisdom. Of course, when I think about all the squabbling we adults do, I picture the L~rd as the exasperated parent pleading with us, "Now children, be nice! Stop your squabbling and behave yourselves!"

We sometimes have a chuckle at the way our children, from teenagers right down to toddlers, will act so grown-up--as if they're already way ahead of us. They've got it all figured out! Or at least, they think they do. We know better. We know some of the realities that lie ahead-- realities that haven't even enter into their consciousness yet.

Don't you think the L~rd feels the same way about us? We walk around thinking of ourselves as mature adults--or at least, trying to pretend we're mature adults. We figure we've got some experience under our belts; and whether or not we truly feel confident inside, we try to project an air of confidence so that others will think we've got it all figured out.