“Why is the sky blue?”, the young child asks. I’m guessing you would answer the same way I did. “It’s blue cause, well,……. the colors are….. well, molecules in the air are,…….uhhhh, the blue light is scattered more than red, and the human eye ah, well, hmmm, we perceive blue color because. Shoot. C’mon kid, it’s blue just cause that’s the way it is!”
It’s irritating to me that I can’t explain something to this little child. She’s definitely too young to understand. She’s too young to have had the experience that I’ve got. My brain is holding a lot more knowledge than what her tiny new brain would have. Yet, she’s fixin’ to teach me a lesson.
Hey, I should be the teacher here. I’ve read and studied lots over the years. My IQ is high enough that I should be able to communicate my thoughts clearly to another person. Yet here I am stumbling and mumbling trying to explain my thoughts to a 6 year old. Honestly, it’s because I feel superior to this young child. What does she know? Could she even understand what I’m telling her in the first place. (Even if I didn’t stumble and mumble.) Wait a few years kid, then you’ll be able to understand things (just as good as me).
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18: 2-4
When I asked the young girl why she thought the sky was blue she gave a short, precise, and confident answer. “God made it that way”. (And she didn’t even mumble or stumble with her words.
Bam! Showed me who the teacher is. Bam! Showed me who has faith. Bam! That little baby girl showed me how to live!!
We live in a world where knowledge is important. If we don’t know an answer we “google it”, we ask Siri, we seek most all of our answers by seeking more knowledge. I guess that’s good,……. it makes us more “smart”.
To live in a Christian spiritual world, we must come as a small young child. That is, we must seek answers to our life’s questions in a trusting way. Show up each day with questions, but come as a child. Curious, but not already filled with doubts and fears.We must look to God for answers and KNOW and BELIEVE IN HIM. Easier said than done, right?
Oh, it’s hard!! Because you “done growed up”. You now think as a grown person. There is more value in understanding how something works than in trusting that it works. There is this perception that if you have faith and trust, it’s a sign of weakness. Wrong. It’s a sign that you are thinking as a child. A child of the King. A child in the Heavenly Kingdom right here and now on this Earth. Bam!! Thank You my Heavenly Father!!
See Ya! Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher and “Never growing up”
