And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
-Mathew 18:3-4
Do you often feel like reliving your childhood days? Especially, when you see old photographs or hear stories of you as a child from your family. No stress, no concerns, no worry about tomorrow—just carefree and light-hearted. Webster’s dictionary describes ‘childlike’ as becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful. God seeks childlike submissiveness and meekness, a gleeful childlike heart and a childlike faith.
They say faith builds character, and this process starts when you are a child. Without faith, we cannot please God.
And just like a child, God wants us to be innocent, trusting, believe without question, receive everything with joy, humble, content in little things, awed by majestic splendour and takes to heart God’s Word and His promises in all its simplicity.
This brings us to a verse in the Bible—1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things”
Being a child is different from acting and understanding like one. This means that in our ‘outward’ relationship to God our Father and to others, we are to be childlike (honest; not malicious), but not in understanding.
Mathew 19:14
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
You read that right, the kingdom of heaven belongs to ‘such as these(children)’.
So, revisit your childhood days, and try to absorb the goodness and the innocence that you once had.