Childlike Faith

Childlike Faith

Jesus Blesses The Children

Read: Luke 18:15-17

Glancing up, I quickly rose from my chair as I saw a toddler walking straight toward the deep end of the pool. Then I noticed her eyes locked on the face of her father, who was in the water, and on his uplifted arms. When the little girl hesitated at the edge, her father smiled and murmured words of encouragement. I watched, mesmerized, as the seconds ticked by . . . and then the girl suddenly relaxed and plunged straight into her daddy’s arms.

Jesus made an important statement about childlike trust when he laid his hands on the children and blessed them. The disciples thought that young children weren’t worth their Master’s time, but Jesus welcomed them. He also used the opportunity to teach the importance of approaching God with the right attitude. After the mothers went home, they must have contemplated Jesus’ statement that a person could enter the Kingdom of God only by becoming like a child. This contrasted sharply with the attitude of their religious leaders and teachers, who gloried in their positions and emphasized strict adherence to rules. Over and over, these mothers may have asked themselves, “Can a relationship with God really be that simple?”

However complicated we make things, a relationship with God is simple. Jesus used the picture of a child to illustrate the attitude required for a person to become a child of God. Like children, we come in humility and total dependence on him, not in pride and self-sufficiency. We approach him with no agendas of our own and implicitly trust him to save us. Even after we become God’s children, it’s important to keep our faith and trust childlike. When responsibilities, burdens, and problems weigh us down, what could be more comforting than jumping into our Daddy’s arms, knowing that he will take care of things?

[Jesus said,] “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

Luke 18:17