Become Like A Little Child – What if Jesus Meant It?

We want to be like Jesus, we say. Even more, we even say we want to know Him. We strive and read and pray and listen. Yet when He says the simple things like, become like a child, we don’t really believe Him. This passage from Matthew 18 struck me this week:

“And He said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’”

I have read this hundreds of times but for some reason it felt like it was technicolor on the page. Perhaps it was because I just finished another year of teaching and 19 faces popped up in all their wild and wonderful ways of being. I’m supposed to be like them? Messy and beautiful and honest and funny and sneaky and scared and unfiltered and cocky and shy. Jesus, what did you mean? I feel like I just spent a year trying to make children behave like adults rather than the other way around.

Thus begins my summer; a research project. How to Become Like a Little Child.  I am afraid and excited. I am also somewhat jarred by the fact that it has not struck me to research this before the age of 52 and after being a Christ follower for almost 34 years. But the Why  feels like a large part of the research as well. Actually that is likely the starting point. What is it about myself, and possibly most adult Christians, that keeps us from surrendering to this critical teaching of Jesus. At the moment, I honestly cannot think of a vital and blatant teaching of Jesus that I have ignored more.

I wonder if the reason we are so averse to “becoming like a little child” has something to do with how we feel when we remember our childhood. This is not a time to delve into family dysfunction; mine or anyone else’s. But, rather, the shame and embarrassment that comes from being a child with an undeveloped brain encountering the world for the first time. 

In a safe and healthy childhood there is much wonder and delight but the confused embarrassment of being a child, regardless of circumstances, is hard. Situations and disappointments and bullies and mean teachers and meaner kids are coming at you with little to no preparation or coping mechanisms. And then suddenly you’re at Sports Day and you are asked to jump over a bar and land (hopefully) unharmed on an oversized mat with everyone watching.

Perhaps this is why when Jesus says “become like a little child” our subconscious recoils and  says no thank you. I don’t like that. I see you, Tara M, looking at my new and uncool jacket with a snide glare. I hear you, Jamie E, laughing at me when I fell in gym class. But I don’t think it is this general shame and embarrassment that Jesus is talking about when He calls us to emulate the children coming to Him without hindrance. 

Instead, is He wanting to restore what was intended by reframing the shame and embarrassment we felt as children? Does He want to heal our memories as we revel in the knowledge that we were just cute, darling, guileless dummies? As we see His delighted nature toward children, can we be less hard on our ten year old selves for puking all over our desk right beside our crush in Mrs. Hunt’s grade 5 class even if we see the look of horror and disdain on her face? Jesus was looking at me with compassion.

Before we consider, now, what it means to become like a little child I think we need to reckon with those moments of shame and embarrassment and consider them through the eyes of a good Father who was only looking at us with delight and compassion. Once we are willing and able to identify with our precious childhood selves I think we can become ready to hear this imperative from Jesus. Anne Voskamp says that “shame dies when stories are told in safe places.” In fact, the more I did this, the more I found myself smiling at other memories. 

I remembered my seven year old self being content to lie on my bed, listening to the early evening sounds of summer. Grasshoppers and frogs and birds outside my window. The color of my bedroom with light seeping through the red woven curtains while I was getting drowsy. So content. I saw my six year old self plodding slowly around my yard to collect caterpillars in a container so I could watch them curl up into a ball before trying to retrace my steps, putting them back and starting to cry because I probably wasn’t putting them back in their original homes. Precious.

A child. Become like a child. Captivated. Simple. Trusting. Content. Scared. Confused but accepting. Curious yet innocent. Full of wonder and questions.

Becoming like a child means letting a lot of the defenses and protective mechanisms go. The sarcasm and know-it-allness. The tough exterior that was built carefully and painstakingly to ensure no one can laugh at us or point fingers at us again. 

After three weeks of meditating on this verse I have decided that it is more than something I need to consider or research but, rather, a lens through which I need to look at the world and discern what is coming at me. For example I heard of a bible trivia app where you can load up on random bible facts in order to impress others. What would a young child say to that? Yuck. Nope. Get that out of here. When the children were received by Jesus in Matthew 19, we can all agree that He was not quizzing them on their random bible facts. He prayed over them; speaking words of perfect prophesy over their little lives. Investing and delighting and loving. 

My favorite grade to teach is grade seven but when it is my turn to be on lunch supervision, I try to hang out with the kindies and grade ones. Now when I hear Jesus’ imploring us to become like a little child I think of Piper (name changed). A few weeks before the end of the school year grade one Piper came running up to me and my orange vest with a concerned face; breathing hard and on the verge of tears. 

“Hey Piper! What’s going on?” She just stared at me, brow furrowing and lip quivering. Instead of speaking she just sidled up beside me. Leaning her head on my hip, she grabbed my hand, and just let out a huge sigh. “OK. Do you just need to stay here for a bit?”

“Mmhmm.” 

That was it. After less than a minute her face was calm. She took another deep breath, smiled at me, and ran away. That picture keeps coming to my mind as I think about my relationship to Jesus. Not only does He allow us to come to Him in simplicity without impressive pious prayers. But He wants that. He is pleading with us to come to Him with honest expression. 

“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” Matthew 19:14

Jesus is not hindering us from coming to him. Let us not be the one hindering ourselves from running into his presence. It might be in worship or grief or prayer. Or it might be to just breathe for a minute. But come. As a child.