Like A Child Again

Matthew 18:3 And he said:

"I tell you the truth,

unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The things of God, particularly the way into a life-long relationship with Him, are incredulously simple. I say incredulous because the one who comes to God with lofty and intellectual ideas will more often than not, miss Him completely.

All through my teenage and adult life I have taught small children in church-school in many different places. Their simplicity, unbridled joy or sadness and innocence always fascinate me. They present to us a world we once left but now, somehow, look forward to again.

Their hearts and minds have not been hardened by the vagaries of life and for the most part, have also not known the temptations that bind many to a lifestyle they privately wish they could rewind. Therefore, their willingness to trust is unmatched. 

They do not pretend to know everything and even when they do know, they bombard us with all manner of questions.

Their questions are rarely grounded on doubt but as one paediatrician told me, "Their questions are because they trust you. When you answer them, you are building their worldview." I consider that a great privilege. Say then, what informs your worldview?

My dear friend, the fundamental aspects of a true relationship with God are very simple. Indeed too simple for many adult minds to accept but here's the thing; unless you humble yourself to the simple and accepting viewpoint of a child, you may never be able to comprehend the things of God. Such is the paradox that Scripture presents us with.

It is a little like the biblical story involving a high ranking military officer, a slave girl and an eccentric prophet. The military man was seeking healing for a troublesome skin disease.

2 Kings 5:1-8:6 Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army. The Lord had helped him, and his troops defeat their enemies, so the king of Syria respected Naaman very much. Naaman was a brave soldier, but he had leprosy.

One day while the Syrian troops were raiding Israel, they captured a girl, and she became a servant of Naaman's wife. Sometime later the girl said, “If your husband Naaman would go to the prophet in Samaria, he would be cured of his leprosy.”

Naaman left with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. Elisha sent someone outside to say to him, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan River. Then you'll be completely cured.”

But Naaman stormed off, grumbling, “Why couldn't he come out and talk to me? I thought for sure he would stand in front of me and pray to the Lord his God, then wave his hand over my skin and cure me.

The solution proffered by the prophet was simple; "Go and take a bath in the Jordan River" but the man used to VIP treatment was instead miffed by the reception he had received.

"...I thought for sure he would stand in front of me...."

His sense of self-importance was blinding him to the ways of God. Forgetting what he was really there for, he stomped off in a fit of rage. His preconceived ideas were blocking him from the only available solution and dictating to him how the process should flow. How foolish!

Now, if we take the Prophet to be standing for God, then we can see how God is no respecter of persons.
And if we take the military commander to represent men seeking God, then we can also perceive how we often come to God with pre-set ideas. And yet God does not obligate Himself to fit into our way of thinking.

For us to receive healing and forgiveness we must, like the military man later discovered, acquiesce to the word of God, absurd as it may seem.

The story continues;

His servants went over to him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. So why don't you do what he said? Go wash and be cured.”

Naaman walked down to the Jordan; he waded out into the water and stooped down in it seven times, just as Elisha had told him. At once, he was cured, and his skin became as smooth as a child's.

Now, if you know anything about the Jesus of the bible you will also know that He is also the only proffered solution to bridge the relational gap between men and God (Acts 4:12). 

And if you know anything about the cross of Christ then at some point you must have surely concluded, " That does sound absurd indeed". 

But the Bible anticipating Naaman-like adult attitudes makes no apologies. Indeed apostle Paul takes no prisoners when he writes God's thoughts about it;

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? 1 Corinthians 1:18-20

So you pride yourself in your intellectual capabilities? Perhaps you even perceive those who fully believe in God and in His Christ as dumb.

Well, the joke's really on you.

Like the military man, you refuse the simple cure that would give you peace, hope and a future beyond the daily grind of this world.

Or maybe you have begun to humble yourself and are approaching the point where, like the military man, you are willing to accept that the scriptures could be right and that you could be wrong...that the words of Jesus could actually be true;

".... unless of course,
you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."