Little Children

One of the scripture verses that we often take for granted, is ironically, spoken of by Jesus Himself. In it, He speaks of what must happen for us to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Now assuming that all of us here actually desire to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it then becomes necessary for us to understand all that this requirement entails.

So today we will be examining these words by Jesus and also the fullness of what they are saying for us.

First let us look at the scripture itself, found in Matthew 18:1-4:

“At the same time came the disciples to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child to him, and set him in the midst of them,
And said, Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever therefore will humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

We see here that the disciples ask Jesus an honest yet somewhat misguided question, and Jesus answers it with perfect eloquence and style. And that answer is one that a typical person would not expect. The greatest in the kingdom of heaven is like a little child.

It doesn’t make sense to a logical mind at first, but as we get to know God it does begin to reveal the things that are truly important to our Father in Heaven.

Now at this time it is important to point out that many people today do tend to confuse the word “humble” with “letting everyone walk all over me”, when in reality this is actually not the case at all.

You see my friends, true Godly humility has nothing to do with being a push-over. Jesus was humble and no-one pushed Him around. In-fact true humility is having the trust and faith in God to get yourself out of the way and simply receive from Him and trusting in His provision and plan for your life.

Think of it like this: Jesus is saying in these scripture verses to be “like a little child.” Now what attributes does a little child have? I can name a few… For one, they do not worry about where their next meal is coming from or how the bills will be paid. Nope. They are outside playing and they happily leave all of these issues to whoever is taking care of them. Another important aspect of little children is that their minds are unshackled. They believe in things beyond physics and science. All things are possible in the mind of a child.

So how do we apply the fullness of what Jesus is saying to our own lives? We should take these characteristics of little children and make them our own.

Now you may be thinking “James are you saying that we shouldn’t worry about our situation?” Yes! I can name several places in scripture where Jesus explicitly states “Do not worry.” and if He said it, He meant it.

Of course food and money have their place and our Father in Heaven knows what we need. However we should understand is that it is His job to take care of these things and He has already told us not to worry about it. In-essence we should be enjoying the day – outside playing if you will, and trust Him to provide.

We should also keep an open mind, understanding that He is God and that He is fully capable to operate outside of space, time and all of the laws of this physical realm which He has created.

So many people limit God by placing Him in a box of our limited imaginations and reasonings of our own human thinking. Let us remember that this is the same God that gave the fishermen a net-breaking boat-sinking load of fishes at a whim, and turned water into the “best wine” at the party. The same God that multiplied five loaves of bread and two small fish to feed the crowd with twelve baskets of food left over after everyone was full. He is not limited by the laws which He Himself put in place!

The kingdom of Heaven is given to us if we merely trust Him as our Father and as our God. The things we worry about, the things we try to handle ourselves were never meant for us to handle. They are for our Father to handle, while we simply enjoy the marvelous life which He paid to give us.

Today let us truly humble ourselves, understanding the real meaning of that word; to simply trust and have the faith to receive from God without fear or worry, for He loves and cares for us, His children.