Childlike

by Scott Wetzel

^“For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.”- Mat. 18:2-5 (The Message)

At one week old, my baby girl doesn’t know how to do ANYTHING, which one might think would become tedious.  But, what I thought would be a boring (albeit tiring) time with her is turning out to be an interesting look into how a person learns to do all the things a person does.  She’s learning how to see, what the tongue should be used for, how to get nourishment into her body, how to breathe, how to recognize her father.  She’s got a clean slate, and that means she’s ripe for discovery.  She’s going to continue to soak in everything for a long time, because she doesn’t fully understand anything.  Her mind is open to wonders and experiences that have never happened.  Things, like our dog or my beard, are anomalies and need to be explored.

She’s seeking to learn so that she can grow and fully be the way she was created to be.  It’s her natural desire at this point.  There is a mechanism in her brain that tells her she needs to learn, eat, and use her senses in order to survive.  She doesn’t know anything about this world, but she knows that she wants to live.  That means every waking minute she is exploring her body’s functions.  However, she needs the ones that brought her into this world to guide, teach, and give her exactly what she needs.  She can’t do any of it on her own.  She’s just not strong enough.  It’s outside her realm of understanding.

This is part of what Jesus is telling us when He told us to be like children (Matthew 18:3).  Most children haven’t yet been spoiled by entitlement or bitterness.  They simply seek to learn.  As adults, we think we know what we see, what the tongue is used for, how to get nourishment and how to recognize our Father.  However, our motives aren’t always pure.  Many times, we’re not doing it to survive spiritually; we’re doing it out of wish for spiritual compensation, or to feel above our neighbor.  Becoming like children, in the spiritual sense, means we seek to receive knowledge as if our spiritual survival depends on it.  And that’s because it does.  God’s not content with where we are right now.  He has new wonders waiting for us.  His dimensions are far outside of ours and becoming childlike, without preconceived ideas, is the only way to reach them.  We must trust the One that created us, in order to be what He created us to be.   Praise God, He’s got something new for us each day.  Please Father, open my eyes to it.