Be Childish for a Change

In the gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke there is an interesting account of people bringing their children to Jesus for prayers and blessing. When the disciples try and put a stop to this, Jesus rebukes them and says; “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:14b-15 ESV) But what does it mean to receive the kingdom of God like a child? Recently in India, I saw first hand the answer to that question.

Gathered in the upper room of the local church leader’s house on a Sunday morning, a group of 20 to 30 people met for church. My boss Dave and I had traveled to Northern India to visit one of our ECC coordinators (Sebastian) and we were attending his church service. It started out much like any American service would; with a pastoral greeting, a reading of scripture, and singing of songs. Never mind that the congregation sat on woven straw mats on the floor, the worship leader directed the music from the middle of the room, and the air conditioning system consisted of a ceiling fan frantically stirring the 100+ degree air between power outages. It was almost like being at church back home, or so I kept trying to convince myself.

Dave had been asked to preach that morning, as he often is when we visit churches, so I had the benefit of hearing the message in English. Part way into Dave’s message I noticed a family walk in late (again just like church back home) and they made there way to the back of the room to sit on the mats. With this family, however, was a little boy maybe 5 or 6 years old whose hand was wrapped in bandages. This was India, though, so seeing people with wounds isn’t out of the ordinary so I wasn't going to give it another thought. That is, not until shortly before the end of the service when this little boy stood up during the middle of communion and walked to the front of the room. He took his place standing directly in front of Sebastian, looking intently at him all the while not saying a word. Sebastian seemed unfazed by this and finished with the remainder of communion at which point he bent over and asked the boy what he wanted.

Taking his cue, this boy proceeded to ask Sebastian to pray for his wounded hand. Apparently he had accidentally smashed it in a doorway as he and his family left for church that morning. His parents had taken him to see a doctor and were planning on returning home but this boy insisted that his mom and dad take him to church even though they were already very late. More than anything else that morning, he wanted the church to pray for him and his hand. He was convinced that those prayers would help it heal faster.

I sat in awe that day as this little boy showed me what it meant to receive God’s kingdom like a child. I thought about how my own unbelief and pride probably would have kept me from being as bold as this little boy was. After all, does God really care about our small problems as much as he does our big ones? And why should we bother God with the small things anyway, can’t we take care of those ourselves? Needless to say I have much too learn (or is it unlearn?) about faith. But with the help of a child in India, and countless others around the world, I am learning to live like a child again.