“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3-4
Before a
certain age, children will believe just about anything. They just have a simpleness about them that
an adult lacks. While an adult has too
much “common sense” to believe certain things, a child lacks that hindrance. In the spirit of the holidays, I’ll give a
Christmas-themed example: Santa
Claus. Pretty much every kid believes in
Santa Claus. Now, as a child becomes
older, this belief just sounds ludicrous.
An old, fat, bearded man fits down a chimney? He travels all around the world in one
night? His transportation is a sleigh
pulled by flying reindeer? The toys are
made by little miniature people called elves?
To any logical-minded adult, these characteristics obviously prove that
Santa is not real. But to a child, these
characteristics are just the way they are.
Apply this
mindset to Christianity, and it’s easy to see why Jesus says to let the
children come to Him and that we should become like children. In the same way that an adult becomes too
intelligent to believe in Santa Claus, many adult Christians become too
“theologically sound” to believe in the simple Gospel.
- “Oh
sure, God can heal, but maybe He won’t this time because sometimes He
wants to teach a lesson through the sickness.” - “Oh sure, Jesus loves me, but there are
certain parts of my past that are just really bad.” - “Oh
sure, God is my provider, but the economy is just really bad.”
About a month ago, I listened to
the testimony of a lady named Jennifer Toledo. She’s a missionary who has spent time in Africa
and spends a lot of time working with children.
She believes that God has called her to teach a simple Gospel to
children. Why? Because children will
believe it. She tells children that God
can heal people, and they go out and pray for people to be healed. (And guess what? The people they pray for are healed.) She tells them that God will provide for
their needs, and they fully trust that He will.
She tells them that God is their daddy who loves them, and they spend
time with Him and fully trust in His love.
Children don’t filter beliefs through logic, common sense, theology,
circumstances, any of that. They just
simply believe.
I want to
be like a child. No, I’m not going to
start believing in Santa Claus again, but I am going to believe in the love and
power of God.
