Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Become as Little Children (Loving God With Our Hearts)

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little
children
, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
-Jesus, Matthew 18:3

Photo courtesy of allposters.com

Although I've had a general understanding of this verse since becoming a Christian, it didn't have the meaning to me that it now has until the birth of my third child. Jerrod is a typical "mama's boy" and doesn't like me to be out of his sight. Complete strangers will come up to me in the grocery store and ask me, "Is he always that happy?" And, in general, I can answer, "Yes, unless he is away from me." He would rather be carried around and involved in whatever I'm doing than to do things on his own.

As Christians, we are to be like little children, but what exactly does this mean? I don't know all the theological implications, but in observing my littlest child, I have a better idea than I used to have. There are several main things that a little child does that are imperative for a true child of God to do as well:

  • Desire to be with Him. I've already told you how my son loves to be right there with me doing whatever I'm doing. So it is with our relationship with Christ. We must desire to simply be with Him. I know, as mothers or busy women, it is not always possible, however our desire should be to spend time alone with our Father. I'm not just talking about our "quiet time" in the morning, but all day long, we should just enjoy having Him near and being near to Him. How does my little one do this? He reaches for me--anytime I put him down! This is a Biblical concept recorded in James 4:8, "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you."
  • Reject all others. Unless it's someone that Jerrod is assured will not take him far from me, like a grandparent or, of course, Daddy; Jerrod will turn away from anyone who reaches out to him to tries to take him. If I'm holding him, he will turn his face to my shoulder and hold on tight if he thinks the threat is very real. Do we do this as Christians? If someone or something tries to draw us away from our Father, do we turn away and hold tight to Him or do we go readily to another?
  • Seek His face. The Word of God tells us in I Chronicles 16:11: "Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually." I don't know what this means to you, but I imagine it's a bit like Jerrod when he is frightened. I turn on the vacuum cleaner or my wonderful but very loud Vitamix, and the noise scares him. What does he do? He looks for my face. When I make eye contact with him and give a reassuring smile, he is fine and smiles back. If I look the least bit disturbed, he will start crying. There are pressures of life that disturb or frighten me as I'm sure there are for you. When I feel the fear build, I need only seek the face of my Father. There I will see reproof or reassurance depending on my reason for fear.
  • Seek to please Him. Jerrod doesn't only seek my face when he is fearful. He also looks for my face to see my smile for no reason at all. He will take his chubby little hands and pull my face toward him, give me a big grin and wait for me to return it. This is one of the most important things in a relationship with God. Do we seek Him when all is going well just to see His smile? Do we want all we do to please Him? His smile of approval on our lives should be our constant and overarching goal in our daily lives.
Let us purpose today to become like little children because these are the ones who will "enter into the kingdom of heaven." That's something I want to be sure not to miss!

Above photo courtesy of sara.atkins

3 comments:

  1. What a wonderful post. Such depth, but so simple in concept. God has truly made salvation so simple that even a child can understand, yet man in all of his trifling has tried to turn it into a complicated matter. Your blog is such a joy, our youngest is now 19 years old and i truly miss all of the baby, toddler, and even tween and teen phases of life. Thank you for your time and wisdom, so glad you share your family and thoughts with us all. Sharon

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  2. What a way to bring it to our level! Good post! Why can't we learn to be as trusting with our Heavenly Father as we are with our earthly one? Just the fact we can't SEE Him with our eyeballs? That seems sort of silly doesn't it? Humans...

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  3. Lovely post! I love how much my children have taught me about God and His love for His children. Thanks for the reminders!

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