In Matthew 18:2-4, we hear Jesus saying “Unless you turn and become like children…” in the ESV translation, and the NIV states, “Unless you change and become like children…”
That stood out to me today in a way it never has before. I’ve known that we are to have childlike faith, but as an adult with adult disappointments and experiences, I have to acknowledge that’s not as simple to live as it is to say. Today, however, I have renewed hope that it is possible. We are able as adults to “change”. We are able to “turn”. We change and turn several times a day in our lives. We change our thoughts. We change our plans. We turn from one task to another. We turn our minds off and on to the sounds, sights, and distractions around us. God has made us able to adapt. He has given us grace to change. I like the word the King James uses…Unless you are ‘converted’. I like that because I know converting requires God’s involvement. God will help us be changed.
What will that look like, to become like children in our faith?
Find a small child, yours if possible. If, like me, you have no small children, find a child who has loving parents. Watch them.
When that child knows they are loved…
When they are hungry, they simply go to their parents with the expectation that they will be fed enough to take away their hunger. They do this over and over and the need is met.
When they are frightened, they run into the safety of their parents’ arms or bed with the expectation that they will be kept safe. They run to their protection. They find their safety over and over, and the need is met.
When they are sad, they go to the ones with whom they can cry and make ugly sounds and ugly mucous, with the expectation that their parents will hear their cry and mend their hurt. No matter how many times they go, the child’s need is met.
When they are sick, they go to their parents and expect them to make them well. Band-aids for boo-boos are not in short supply.
When they are full of joy, children leap to share that with their parents. The parents love this part. It’s the fun part.
Why? Because children see their parents as loving, willing, and powerful. Children put no limits on their parents’ ability. They expect to receive simply because they “are” and because they are assured of their worth in the heart of their parents.
Children do not disqualify themselves from their parents’ affection and promises based on their misdeeds, missteps or mistakes.
Children realize they are dependent on their parents, even when they don’t understand what that means.
Children. God, help us to change…to turn…convert us adults, in our relationship with You, to children. Help us to forget our independence, our self-determination. Help us to run, whether we are hungry, frightened, sad, sick, lonely, in over our heads, to You. Our Father. Our loving, willing, powerful, able Father.
We are His children. In our maturity and in our immaturity, we are His children. Loved. Accepted. He is loving. Willing. Able. Powerful.
Be changed. Turn. Convert. Run.
For His Glory 