The Incredible Magnificent Glorious Wonder of Children
Or how to receive the kingdom of God on any given day
How do you want it to come to you? As a stiff-collared rule-tender to slap you down in harsh words of rebuke or something a bit more welcoming, maybe even endearing, and wholesome? How do you want life’s answer to come? For it will come and you must pick the venue. We all must.
We each decide whether life is made up of how things must be done and in what order or whether life is how things are to be savored and explored. It is our choice and we make it every day. It is either a list of rules we follow because we have some list, or it is comprised of spontaneity and wonder as the minutes of the day flow by in some kind of magical feast we are just overwhelmed to be a part of, like we are amazed we even got invited to the party. It is stiff-collared rule tending or it is something altogether different and wonderful. You decide.
Well, the kingdom of God is like that. But picture this.
The children are playing in the backyard, your children, and their friends. Small children filled with all the fantasies you can no longer imagine because you are older now and somewhere back in childhood you lost the ability to create other worlds in a moment or dream of things that were most certainly impossible, but they were as real as anything anyway. Yes, your children are there with their friends exploring the boundaries of heart and mind in the dirt with toys that are new or broken, but it doesn’t matter because you can still haul stuff in them or they are the best color ever, and besides in five minutes we are going to climb the butternut tree to the top of the world and see forever, or we are going to race around the house as fast and as many times as we can until our legs get wobbly and we have to stop for the giggling joy of it. And you smile and think back to your own childhood and the wonder that was there. Do you feel the sense of loss? It is a good thing to feel it just now for it says you have not abandoned your love of wonder. You are still pulsing alive beneath your thick adult skin and your eyes are open to a mystery. And that is a very good thing. But can this backyard image help us? I think so.
There is a scene in the Bible where the people are bringing their kids to Jesus. They want him to bless them. Seems like a good thing. Let’s have a look.
13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.[1]
Let’s get this straight. The people were bringing their kids to Jesus so he could bless them in some way and the disciples got up and tried to stop them. Perhaps the disciples felt their growing-in-prominence rabbi Jesus should not be bothered with these irritating small-time small-person interruptions to his important work of teaching and so on. As was typical of this unpolished band of followers, these crude disciples in the making, they got it all wrong and Jesus told them to let the children come. I guess the disciples did not quite understand the true nature of his work after all. And what was it anyway?
This brief and tender scene has enormous things for us. It opens the window for us to catch a glimpse of God and what he is up to. It opens the sky for us to begin to see the wonder for it is outpouring all the time, God shedding his magnificence to all who will see. How so?
Jesus tells his followers, Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. We have heard the passage for years and we think, Yes, yes, we come to Jesus as little children. But what do we mean when we say that? What does it mean to come to Jesus as a child? We usually respond with something like, Well, we come with simple faith – God exists and Jesus saves me from my sin. And that is true. But it is so much more. It is to children that the kingdom belongs. Think about that. The kingdom of God belongs to those little ones with wonder in their heart. Not to adults with our objectives and schedules but to children. Not to those who have forgotten how to imagine the unimaginable, who have forgotten the sheer delight and mystery of this God in heaven and the amazing world he has spoken into being. The kingdom belongs to children, to those who have no limit on what their God will or can do.
Many years ago, I had the joy of working with small children at a church as their teacher. I would provide a simple Bible lesson and then we would pray. We would talk with God. It was my favorite part of our times together. Little children place no limits on God. These children taught me that a child’s heart is limitless. It has no boundaries whatever. None. Like God himself. Their words spoken with such simple trust and sincerity - for the physical healing of a sister or safety from life dangers or food for the family for that day because there was no food or a job for their dad because everyone knows how much God cares for us all. No boundaries at all. We so often forget that God is not bounded in any way by our understanding of him. He is beyond our every thought. A child does not embrace the delusion of a small impotent God with limits but knows instinctively that God is too big for words or anything at all. He is God and they know it. They know it for real.
We set up these boundaries for God ourselves, you know. We do it almost without thinking as we organize our lives and try to make it from one thing to another. There is no time for that, we say as we discard a moment of reflection or of beauty passing by or the thought that God can do a thing extraordinary, no time for that, as we hurry on to the next thing as if time will not stop for us or for God in heaven though he owns the cattle on a thousand hills and everything else. In the rush of things, we forget who our God is, the Absolute Sovereign of All, including the many tangled universes of our lives. He reigns, and that is all there is to say.
What do our kids playing in the dirt and climbing trees tell us? What do we take away from their childlike glee and happiness? We see their wonder and their sense that things are not what they seem but some altogether other thing of so much more importance and delight. And, yes, so satisfying, too. Yet it was not their eyes that led them into their fantastical wonderland but their ready hearts, their wild illimitable souls eager to cast in on whatever exciting adventure they stumbled upon. Well, we can choose to be children once again, we really can. We can choose to stop and listen to the song of wind in the trees or gaze a few long moments at the sunset just now burning straight down through the western horizon or linger more than we have time for over those passages in the Bible we read this morning that we felt might be speaking to us for they were, they clearly were.
So, let’s get back to Jesus as he is speaking to his disciples with the people there and the children milling around. He has said the kingdom belongs to children, to these little people with hearts as big as God’s heaven. If you are like me, you feel somewhat bested by these faith-packed little ones who have not conceived of a limit to their God. It’s ok to feel outpaced just now by the children. It is as it should be for kids have heaven’s eyes and we are the ones learning to see again. Our eyes and hearts have been shuttered up in a busy world with our countless things to do and our many goals to achieve and the relentless noise of it all. But now it is important for us to pause and consider. How are we called to live anyway? And besides, what is the nature of a good day? And what does peace with God really look like for it is clearly not checking off a box acknowledging God’s existence and the work of Jesus on the cross. It is not just that. There is something else here. There is something more essential that is not made of getting here or there or marking off to-dos but of a something wholly other. Jesus goes on to say, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. So, there is also a question of eternity at play. All of this should shake us to our core.
There is a childlike acceptance and simplicity to be embraced, a propensity to lean into wonder and mystery rather than some self-imposed crisis of the day for that is the very nature of being a child, of seeing everything new and exciting and so thoroughly intriguing, seeing all of it for the very first time, fresh and full glorious dazzling. If we think about it, this is how things ought to be in our relationship with Christ, always coming new, startling us every moment for we can never fully know him but are forever coming to know him more intimately. It is this always coming new and ever a mystery and coming to know that should grab our attention. These are things of child eyes.
We mentioned earlier that the disciples did not seem to understand the true nature of Jesus’ work. We left it as an open question, but it is time to take it up again.
So, what was and is the nature of Jesus’ work? Of course, there was the teaching, there was always that. But there must have been more than helpful instruction on living a happy life. Of course, there was.
To begin his ministry years Jesus gathered a group of close followers, his twelve disciples, and we know from the Gospels that those following grew into thousands as they trekked with him throughout the countryside and villages. The crowds would swell in number and then recede when he said something too controversial. Yet there was always a crowd, a bunch of people desperately hungry to hear his teaching for his words and his life were as a light to them. This is important. The teaching was there but it was his life and actions that substantiated his words. His healing the sick, his active discourse with those that agreed and those that did not, and his attendance to the seemingly insignificant people like poor widows and blind beggars or the children in our story. His life declaring the infinite value of each person, responding to their needs, helping them to see their God more clearly and giving them a taste of things beyond this world. His warmth and simple compassion attested to the truth of what he was saying. So, they would come for it was a blessing to be with him. And nothing has changed, it is the same today.
The common thread in all of this were the people and their overwhelming needs. Jesus cared for them and they knew it as he drew them ever closer to himself. Sometimes in a healing moment, sometimes in simple conversation. Words spoken to reach across the chasm of heaven and earth and make a connection. Jesus helping them to grow in an intimate relationship with his Father and himself, guiding them to be taken up with the things of heaven and not of earth. Yes, the practical needs are there, but in the face of these what do we do? How do we respond in a way that reaches for heaven while we are addressing the immediate need? Jesus was showing them how to live, his life a pouring out to others. Like God himself for he was God. God coming to us with a human touch. Some came to know him and others not.
So, what was the nature of Christ’s work as he walked among us so many years ago? It was all about drawing people into an affinity with himself, into a closeness to him by addressing their needs. It was getting his thousands of followers to know him more deeply, to know the very God of heaven in a personal familial way. His work was to open eyes to see God for who he is, one full of grace and mercy, all glorious and full of wonderment. A listening caring God. And it was helping others to reach out to the needs of other people in a likeness to God’s own heart outpouring. We see this even in our day. The kingdom of God in a growing relationship with the One Who Made the World, his love spilling out in acts of kindness and good through the lives of those who love him. Yes, heaven came down to earth and he is still here among us.
And the kids in the backyard playing in the dirt, what of them? Leave them to their imaginations and their kid-lovely take on things. Learn from them what it means to see and know a thing for the magnificent mystery it is. Leave them to wonder. It is not the press of the day which destroys us, but our capitulation to it. Better a moment of reflection or helping another than all the accomplishments we might otherwise achieve yet be left soulless and empty.
So, how do you want life’s answer to come? A stiff-collared rule-tender or the tender friendship of God? You decide.
[1] Mark 1:13-16 (ESV)