To Be More Childlike

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,
he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:3-4

It is a statement of Jesus with such clarity that it is difficult to miss his point. Unless we have the simple trust and faith in God that a child has, we’ll never get the central idea of the kingdom of God—unconditional love. Children have been used by other leaders as a means of hearkening us to our more noble selves. In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech from the Lincoln Memorial in August, 1963 he said,

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

President Barack Obama touched on it in his reference to Christina Green, the nine year old girl killed by the carnage in Tucson, in his speech at the service for those victims:

I want us to live up to [Christina Green’s] expectations. I want her democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us—we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

The same should be said of a church where people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character and that we all want a church that will be as good as our little children imagine it.

Of course none of this is possible unless it begins with you and me. It begins right where Jesus’ words leave off—unless we become as a child. It sounds easy, and perhaps is easier than we imagine, but for an adult it is a challenge. None of us want to be hoodwinked or otherwise taken advantage of, but at some point such risks must be taken. Especially if we believe in what Jesus stood for and the world he, even today, seeks to transform through those of us who seek to be his followers.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, fill us with the love and light of your kingdom on this new day that we may be those willing to risk lives lived by the simple but profound love and hope of a child in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana