The other day, when I was goofing around with our grandchildren, one of them made a comment that made me very happy, “Kung Kung, you have a lot of hair.” Trying to be modest, I corrected him, “No, I am already old; I do not have a lot of hair.” It was, then, that he clarified his earlier statement, “You have a lot of hair on the back of your head.” Thanks a lot! I got it all wrong! It’s not a compliment.
Children’s honesty can be brutal; those words can just blurt out of their mouths with no reservation or sympathy. But as we know, they mean no harm; they simply tell us what they think and feel. No wonder Jesus Our Lord said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:14-15).
We were once children—clean and honest. We meant no harm and we told the truth. Unfortunately, as we grow older, we change; we mean harm and we hide the truth. We lost our innocence. We also treat people differently; we pick and choose not only what we say but also people around us. Some are higher than the others; and some deserve more attention and respect than the others. More seriously, we do not take the call of Jesus for us to be like children seriously. We forget that failure to be like children will result in not entering the kingdom of God. It’s time to be like children again.
We begin by being children in our relationship with Our Heavenly Father. We begin by listening to what He says and obeying what He tells us to do. We begin by being spontaneously awed at His great works and by being grateful to His care and availability. And most importantly we begin by being clean and honest to Him.
Pastor Paul