Kids do dumb things! I also include myself in that group. In my first preaching ministry in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the church secretary had a little toddler by the name of Gary Dean. Gary Dean enjoyed playing on the floor, for me to read to him on the floor, and I started making up stories about him being the hero who kicks the gluteus maximus of the wicked witch of the west and saved the day for all the other little kids of Carlsbad.
One day while rolling around on the floor, I asked him to roll on his back and grab his ankles, which he did. I stood up and spread my legs out as if I would if I was riding a horse, and I wrapped my hands around his little hands and ankles. Then I lifted him up off the floor and started swinging him under my legs and out in front and behind of me. If that would have been you, or me, we probably would have been scared and started crying, but not Gary Dean. He was laughing like crazy. When I stopped and put him back down, he would put his little index finger in the air while on his back and say, “One more time!” We could have done that a hundred times and Gary Dean would still say, “One more time!” We got so good at this routine that I could swing him up above my head and balance him for several minutes. All the while Gary Dean would be laughing so hard that he would be drooling onto my face.
You should have seen the look on his parents, grandparents, and the aunt’s face when we first performed our little stunt before them. Sheer horror and fear appeared upon their once pleasant-looking faces, but Gary Dean’s contagious laughter soothed their troubled hearts, and they eventually started laughing also. Kids bring the best out of me, because of their childlike faith.
We read: “People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth; anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18: 15-17) Children are trusting and have big imaginations. Santa rides a flying sleigh, delivering gifts to every child in the world. SURE! A cow jumps over the moon. OKAY! The tooth fairy collects teeth from under pillows and leaves money. I 'LL BUY THAT! Children take God at His Word. Jesus is the Son of God born of a virgin. OKAY! He rose from the dead to save us from our sins. ALL RIGHT! Childlike faith isn’t rational. Children believe what they are told.
Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.” After hearing this verse, an adult might discuss its theological implications. A child would look for a mountain that needed to be moved. Yet, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:2, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Is there anything purer than the love of a child? At some point, we all start deciding whom we will love. However, love is not a choice for a child. Children love unconditionally.
However, God is calling us to be childlike in our faith, but not childish in our walk with Christ. In 1st Corinthians 13: 11, Paul through the power of the Spirit of God continues “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” Does this verse counter what Jesus said earlier? No,because Paul is referring to spiritual maturity here in this verse. He is telling the Corinthians (and us) to grow up and quit being spiritual babies, who need to be spoon-fed the Word of God. He calls them to be adults who are more like Jesus. Adults who never stop loving!
It may seem dumb to love your enemies, to do good to those who hate you or persecute you and to turn the other cheek, but that’s our calling as His precious children of the faith!
John T. Catrett, III Scissortail Hospice Chaplain 306 North Main Street, Suite E Bristow, OK 74010 918.352.3080