When was the last time you watched a little child listening and responding to the comments of a parent? The simplicity of a child’s worldview is astounding. Sure they have their moments of rebellion and fussing, but don’t we all? Their innocent faith, on the other hand, is something we adults seem to rarely exhibit in our own lives.
As we grow older, we tend to mistake knowledge for wisdom. The more we know, (or think we know) the more we tend to be skeptical and doubting. We lose that innocent faith in others we once had way back in our own childhood. Whenever people disappoint you, and theories bombard you, the temptation is to stop placing full confidence in God.
Adam and Eve were tempted to drift away from that place of childlike faith in God, and they decided to follow that spirit for awhile. What about you? Do you often find yourself “happy in the Lord” because you know you can trust Him in all things? Or do you find yourself to be more of “grumpy goose” and a critic when it comes to the Lord and the Bible? If so, where did you lose your way?
You may say, “Dan, I have never found my way. That is, I have never trusted in God for anything, let alone salvation.” That is fair enough, if that is your situation. It’s honest. It’s real. It’s part of who you are today. But it is not necessarily who you will be next month or next year. It all depends on your willingness, or refusal, to “become like a child” again.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2) Just stop and consider what Jesus was saying there. How do little children tend to view what their parents tell them? Do they receive it with simple faith, or with skepticism? Unless they have become jaded due to unloving behavior directed at them, they almost always embrace what they are being told as the truth. After all, why should they doubt the words of those who love them?