Like a Child

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:15) I never really understood what it meant to “receive the kingdom of God like a child.” This is an idea many of us will need to wrestle with in our faith journeys, especially when we experience and witness things that are beyond our intellectual capacities as “mature” adults. I mean, just the idea of  how do  little children receive such an ethereal idea– the kingdom of heaven, is an enigma. However, Jesus said it so matter of factly. He said it in such a childlike manner that we must  seriously consider taking that statement as a child would take the statement– literally! When I mean literally, I mean that children take this statement for what it is and runs with it, and holds it in his or her heart. It provides more wonder and encouragement to fill his or her imagination. We know that this is true because when and if we promise children candy or toys, they take those words, no matter how true or however long into the future they may come into fruition, with a sense of literal expectancy– they spend their time hoping for the arrival of their promise. The kingdom of God, which, if is described properly is greater than any piece of candy or toy, would bring that much more hope and encouragement to any child. Now comes the challenging part of this statement– what actions must we take to receive this statement? We are adults and since we’ve lived a few years more than naive little children, we know that statements as great as receiving an entire kingdom are more figures of speech than literal promises. We are jaded enough to feel the words being emptied into a cliched basin of unsettled and beyond our relative truisms.  The English preacher, Charles Spurgeon once said about this: “We must lay aside all hope of solving difficulties and simply believe upon the authority of God. Nothing short of this is faith! Children receive the Gospel without proposing amendments in it.” So there you have it– children receive God and His kingdom in an unworldly manner (like they don’t know any better), and so should we. We should live in a way that is unworldly. Our faith in God, no matter how naive or ridiculous, should reach out beyond our physical grasps and be an expression of what could be in Christ.