By Casey MacPherson – CFFM Minister & A/V Dept. Coordinator
My wife Katrina and I have a toddler named Trey. As we have been watching him grow up, Matthew 18 keeps coming to mind.
“[Jesus] 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 18:2-3 NIV
This got me thinking about the different characteristics that little children demonstrate as they grow and how we can learn from them.
Trust in the Father
The first thing I’ve noticed as a new parent is how much trust our children put in us.
Our son trusts Katrina and me to take care of his daily needs. We feed and clothe him, when he is scared or hurt, he turns to us to keep him safe.
Our trust in God should be the same. There should be no doubt in our minds that God has us covered regardless of the circumstances.
Experience Wonder
I’ve also noticed that Trey has a wonder and excitement for each new thing in life. Whether it is a toy, book, or skill he has discovered, watching Trey reminds me to approach God and his Word with that same kind of wonder.
“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand…” Psalms 139:17-18 NIV
Pursue Whole-Heartedly
Young kids love to run everywhere. As soon as Trey learned to walk, he was in full sprint mode. If he sees something he wants, he is going towards it at full speed.
God wants us to approach him in the same way. We can run to him as fast as we can, crawl into his lap and learn from him.
Grandma helping Trey to walk and explore.
As with many things in life, approaching God as little children is a balancing act.
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV
Paul encourages us to put away childish thinking if we want to see the fullness of God. But doesn’t that seem to contradict what Jesus told his disciples?
No! While children have a lot of qualities we should bring to our faith, they have others that we need to be mindful of.
It’s Not About You
One such example is their selfishness. Babies and toddlers are mainly focused on one thing: themselves.
They want WHAT they want WHEN they want it. If you’ve ever tried to tell a toddler “No,” you know what I mean.
When approaching God, we need to be humble and thinking about serving others. God has a lot of plans in store for each of us, but we will never fulfill them all if we are only thinking about getting what we want right now.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:10 NIV
Grow in Maturity
Another example of childish thinking is their lack of maturity.
“…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:12-14 NIV
Paul encourages us to build our spiritual maturity, so we can be solid in our faith. If we do not have a firm foundation in the Word, we are easily persuaded, and we can succumb to the tricks of the adversary.
Trey believes what people tell him, and unless we teach him the truth, he can’t discern right from wrong because he has no reference point for the truth.
Dig into Scripture
Have you ever seen a movie for the first time that excited you so much, you wanted to keep watching it again and again? A movie that stuck with you and you couldn’t stop thinking about? As you watched the movie over and over, did you ever realize that your enthusiasm for it was starting to fade?
In my walk with God, I have sometimes allowed sections of scripture to become like that movie. As I read through them over and over again, they didn’t resonate with me the same way as the first time through.
When praying to God to stir up my spirit on these passages, which I felt I knew so well, I was reminded to approach the scripture like a child. When children read something, they have a thousand questions.
They don’t have any preconceived notions of what it is trying to say. By simply approaching the Word with a humble expectation, they are able to glean more than they can imagine.
Trey is ready to learn and play!
As many of you know, Wayne Clapp, a good friend and teacher to me and so many others, recently fell asleep in Jesus.
And as we celebrated his life, a theme that came up repeatedly was his ability to memorize the Word and how he knew the Scriptures inside and out.
He truly personified Psalm 119:11a, “I have hidden your word in my heart.”
But when I think of Wayne, it’s not the depth of his knowledge, but his passion for the Word that comes to mind. He was always searching the Scriptures and sharing his enthusiasm with us for what he was learning.
I will always remember Wayne teaching the Word and getting choked up by a passage he had read a hundred times.
Wayne knew that every single word from God was a treasure, so he held them in high regard and was constantly being impacted by them.
My hope for my son Trey and all of us, is that we can seek after God with the same enthusiasm that Wayne showed every day.
If we continue to approach God with child-like faith, He can ignite our passion for the Scriptures more than we ever thought possible, and He will expand our wisdom each and every day.
For more on interacting and relating with our Father God, read Dennis Dobbin’s “You Are the Father’s Beloved.”