on faith and little children
When did we cross the line from complete freedom of action to self-consciousness? When did what people say about us start to matter and we had to convince them we are a hairline away from being omniscient and omnipotent? When did we learn to hide behind the niceties of language and mask our true feelings?
This scenario gets played out in other settings: the grocery, at church, video shop—name it, they did the name-shouting exercise, only in varying decibels in the different instances. I am learning my lesson: Stay as close to them as possible in public if I don’t want everybody to know who the missing aunt is.
But after my lapse of momentary embarrassment, the truth is I don’t really mind at all. Because kids are devoid of self-consciousness. And they usually mean no harm (usually being the operative word here). In general, little children simply just say whatever is on their minds, and do what they feel like doing. Sure, they need discipline but I think 60% of the time, they're really just being kids. When I'm outside and see mothers shaking their kids to coerce “respectable behavior” even if what all their kids do are harmless forms of fun, I feel like shaking their mothers back and saying, “They’re kids. They won’t be forever kids so let them act their age.”
Honest and needy. Vulnerable and trusting. Little children know they can’t survive on their own so they ask for help. For you to open the can of sausage. Cook their favorite noodles. Buy their snack. Tie their shoelaces. Comb their hair. Count their coins. Read the label. Stay close by when they feel afraid. No pretense of self-sufficiency. No apologies for dependence.
Maybe that’s the reason why Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
For who else but the most trusting of little children could best show us what it means to be needy and come to God by faith, expecting not to be turned away but welcomed in all His grace?