I do not work much for my living as I do not require much in return. I do not expect much so therefore, I am not burdened by disappointment. I have little but have received much.
I do not own houses or modes of transport nor do I require a bank account. And, yet I have never been more content. Life seems to have a way of working out things for me.
The Apostle Peter once told Christ that he had given up his home, his occupation and family to follow him and Jesus replied that he would gain a hundred fold houses in this life as well as in the next age. I too possess a hundred fold houses as I have made scores of lifelong friends along the way here from Illinois. I can, at any given time pick up the phone and call any one of them to tell them I will be in their neighborhood; could I stay with you awhile?
For the last half a century I had been asleep dreaming in the shadows not wanting to wake. Life, for me, had lost all its enchantment and ardor for adventure and for learning new things and new ways of doing old things. My fear of both life and death forced me into the squalor of apathy and smallish thinking. It was time for change.
Christ himself said that unless we change and become as a little child we would not gain access into the Kingdom of God. "You must be born again" Jesus told Nicodemus. To be born again implies rising anew into a second childhood if not literally then more importantly, metaphorically.
So, I decided I needed to draw out from within my inner child and live like him. What does living like a little child look like? Well, it has been a long time since my kid days in the 60s; but, try I must!
First off, a little child is completely and utterly dependent on adults for all things. They require assistance with everything.
But, they are fascinated with even seemingly ordinary things like boxes and spoons and such. They light up at learning new things. They are in constant play mode living only in the present with no regrets of the past nor dread for the future.
A little child has no power, no means by which they can alter their estate. And, they know they do not have power or authority. They are therefore, meek and humble knowing they are the weaker in any human relationship.
Every day's dawn is a brand new opportunity to create, to make things, to play and to learn. That's what Christ meant, I think.
We should be like a little child refusing to take an afternoon nap so as not to miss out on playing with our little chums. God, I think, too likes to play. Why else would he create so many different kinds of weird looking animals or endow his crowning achievement with humor, if not for being playful? That is the way of the road less traveled that takes us to God's Kingdom right in the here and now not just in the age to come.
Thoreau said that most people live lives of quiet desperation. We see the effects of that everywhere in our culture even on the 6:00 news.
Well, I can report to you that after a year and half on this journey I am a bit less desperate. I find myself more and more looking at the dawning sun as a new morning star, a brand new opportunity to live in the here and now with no regret and no fear living life in the shadow of death and able still to say, I love this life you gave me dear Lord!
The picture presented here is of Pastor Dawit's infant son, Yohhanon. Become a little child to enter the Kingdom.
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