Faith Like A Child - A New Thought

Ariel over at Bittersweet Life was asking about the phrase, "Faith Like A Child," that Jesus used in one of his many lessons. Specifically He mentioned the fact that we should all have faith like a child if we wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Ariel was wondering what we all felt that that meant. At the time, if I gave an answer, it was probably pretty lame. But the question didn't leave me. It was something I thought I understood intuitively, but that I couldn't quite place into words - and now I understand why.

I've often admired the way a really good pastor can speak to the littlest of children about God. They often have to take the most complex theological sayings and expressions and boil them down to their bare essence for the littlest ones to understand. Our Pastoral Intern started out this year, well to be generous, as a disaster. Conveying these thoughts is not easy and I've seen the attempt fail spectacularly. Little children have a tendency to see things about God that we don't expect - with often hilarious or unintentional results. They ask embarassing questions and we just smile because we know their questions are often the first ones we asked as well - "Where did Mrs. Cain come from?" And yet, we think its sweet when they sing songs like, "Yes, Jesus Loves Me," because we know that soon they'll be able to sing more adult songs like Handel's Messiah. We know that as they grow older and understand more they will come to appreciate God more fully, to know Him more completely. But for now, well... we just have to spoon feed it to them in tiny amounts that they can grasp.

On Sunday it suddenly occurred to me what Jesus was trying to say. It wasn't the full blown theology with the five hundred encyclopedic volumes of information that He wanted us to embrace and grasp. It was these kernels of spoon fed religious faith. He was saying that to get into the Kingdom of Heaven we have to believe that Yes, Jesus Loves Me Because The Bible Tells Me So. Its that simple. We, being skeptical adults and sinners, find that hard to grasp. Wait? Isn't there more to it than that? There's got to be more. What about...

There is no more. There is no what about... There is simply the truth and its core. The disciples didn't get it. And truly, as adults, we don't get it either. But kids grasp it, understand it at a fundamental level. They understand the concept that people can love them for just being themselves and that they will be sheltered and fed and clothed and taken care of by those who love them. They don't need to know any more. And really, we don't either.

Our Faith needs to be that simple - and man, is that a hard concept to grasp.

P.S. The continuing saga of "Phil and Ron in the Navy" will return as soon as I remember... I mean, as soon as I completely fabricate from scratch more stuff. ;)