Faith Like a Child

     What does it mean to have the faith of a child? This is a question that I have been thinking about all day. Watching young children in church always surprises me and makes me very happy about the way they view God. As adults, we sometimes forget what it means to have faith like a child and it becomes about how much knowledge or information we have on areas of the faith. This sometimes can be hazardous to us as adults if we are not careful about lacking the sincerity and honesty that a child has. When ever you ask a child about who God is, they so often give you subtle answers like “He knows when I sleep and He knows when I wake up”.

     It is totally amazing to me, that a child has that much faith in God. For them to know that our heavenly Father knows this much about their very being is so amazing and sobering to me. Why can’t we as adults go back to being “child like” in our faith at times? This brings to mind a passage from the bible that so many of us are probably so familiar with, but I would like to share it with all of you. This passage comes out of Matthew 18: 1-6 (NASB).

At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

     As you can see from this passage, Jesus takes these little ones very seriously and as should we. I think even as adults we can become so consumed in theology and philosophies of the faith that we really do not take into account what the children have to say about the God we worship. There is so much that a child can teach us about our own theology and how we view Jesus. I will give you an example of what I mean.

      When you ask a child about how great God is, you are bound to get many replies. One such reply is one that my pastor was talking about today when we met to discuss a book we are going through. When someone asked this child about how great God is, he said that God knew the name of his dog without anyone ever having to tell God. That blows my mind! That child is talking about how God is omniscient and knows everything in an infinite amount. That really puts the idea of omniscience into simpler terms and can be understood very easily by anyone. I am just absolutely astonished at kids and their way they describe the God of the universe that we as adults so often debate about.

     So when reading about how Jesus felt about young children, it is plan to see why He felt the way He did about them. I think as believers, we should really check ourselves and turn back to “faith like a child”. I would bet that we can learn a lot from children and how the view God and the bible. I guess this could be a whole new take on studying theology…the kid way!