Child-like faith

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 18.2-4

Sometimes we can be very bad about complicating things. Recently I posted about the necessity of counting the cost before deciding to truly follow Christ. That is true but here Jesus points to the other side. Faith is still simple, it is not complicated – it is so simple that even a child can exercise it.

The other night Maddie, Mary, AJ, and I were walking back from town after Mary’s birthday dinner. We had to walk down a rather busy road so I told AJ before we left that if he wanted to come with us he had to stay right with me. He couldn’t run off and he had to hold my hand when the traffic was busy.

His choice was pretty simple. He could trust me enough to get him home and follow my instructions or not. For AJ it was a matter of simple faith. He knew that Grampy would get him home safely.

Theologians and want to be theologians can spend far too much time debating the finer points of faith and salvation. We have all kinds of impressive theological words. I think sometimes we simply like to hear ourselves talk.

Jesus put it this way – ‘unless you are converted and become as like a child you cannot enter God’s kingdom. Those who humble themselves like children will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We need to show the simple kind of faith Maddie and AJ showed when they walked home with Grammy and me. Simple, humble, and pure child-like faith is the only faith that works.