Life with the Faith of a Child

I came across some interesting quotes this week regarding children.  Here are a few that you might find as intriguing as I did.

You can learn many things from children, how much patience you have, for instance.

Children are unpredictable.  You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next.

Children seldom misquote.  In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child.  There are seven million.

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.

Jesus said in Mark 10:15 that “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”  Scholars have debated the question of having faith ‘as a child’ and how that statement is manifested in our adult lives.  I am certainly no scholar, but I think sometimes we try to make things more complicated than Jesus intended them to be. 

For instance, children don’t debate the existence of God nor do they question Him or His ways.  They just believe in Him and trust Him.  They don’t argue about His will for today and the future for their lives, they just trust Him.  They don’t worry about tomorrow and if everything will be all right, they just leave tomorrow to Him.

Another thing I have noticed about children is that they do not dwell on whether God loves them and if He is a loving God or not.  They see Jesus exactly as He is, a loving savior who loves them and all people.  They have a tender heart toward others and all of God’s creation.  They can be broken over a sick person and an ailing pet at the same time without letting it depress and discourage them.  They just trust God to make it all right.

One last thing I have noticed about children.  They don’t seem to separate and divide this life and the one to come from reality.  Heaven is just as real to them as the life they live in today.  Last week a father was in the hospital for a few days and his children were missing their daddy terribly and wondering when he was coming home.  Their mom called the hospital and had the children talk with their dad on the phone.  After ending the conversation, his daughter asked if daddy was in heaven?  No, her mom answered, daddy was not in Heaven, and he would be home in a couple of days.  I thought about that and realized that to this little girl heaven was not some far away distant place, but a real place that her daddy would be in one day.  She just thought the time had already arrived.

Heaven is real to them.  Children believe in heaven because they believe in a loving God who they can trust.  Our job is to teach them about the Son of God who came to show us what they already know.