Think for a moment about the truths that we teach children. We teach them to love their neighbor. We teach them to love God. We teach them to believe that God really works in their lives. We teach them to believe in Jesus. These truths aren’t minor. Nor are they little. They are the most important truths that we have. They are the truths about Jesus. They are the truths about God’s love. They are the truths about forgiveness.
I wonder if sometimes we, as adults, make life complicated. We talk about theology, we argue over the finer points. Yet, that isn’t what we see the gospel writers or the apostles doing. Sure, they talk about deep things; but they don’t talk about them in a way that makes their faith more complicated. The deep things they think about never over-shadow the important lessons of the Scripture. Even when Paul expounds deeply, it erupts into simple praise. Paul never forgets the important lessons. The love of God in Jesus never became just a children’s song. In fact, the love of God in Jesus is a theme that Paul comes back to again and again.
Matthew says of Jesus, “And He called a child to Himself and set him among them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “ – Matthew 18:2-4
In our desire to be ‘grown up’ do we lose sight of these precious truths that give us hope and remind us of God’s love and worth? If so, I don’t want to be a grown up. I always want to be a child of my heavenly Father. I especially want to have the simple faith and loving abandon of a child. What about you? Will you join me in living by the simple and amazingly profound truths of Jesus?
Something to think about,
Pastor John
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