If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5

You’ve probably seen paintings of Jesus with children on His knee or in His arms. These images are inspired by a passage in several of the Gospels. In these passages, Jesus was indignant that His disciples were turning children away from “bothering” Him while He taught crowds (Mark 10:13-14). Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18: 3-4) You may be surprised to know that Jesus never said anything about “childlike faith.” That’s a phrase we’ve taken from the idea of “becoming like little children.”

Other than by humbling ourselves, how are we to be like children?  Well, children trust completely, and complete trust is a worthy goal, but for most of us, this requires a lifetime of discipline. Children are question-asking machines. They have a natural inclination to find out the how and why of things. Perhaps we should ask more questions! The more we ask questions, the more we’re compelled to dig into scripture and test-drive the things we learn, in our lives. Then too, children ask for what they need—I’m hungry, I’m thirsty! and their needs get met.  Children make a lot of mistakes as they learn and so do we.

Let’s keep asking, keep reading, keep trying, keep learning. These are ways we can seek the kingdom of heaven like children.

 

Resource reading: 1 Timothy 4:12-16