Question 1.3
Why does God expect us to be like little children? How is that an essential part of God’s plan?
And Jesus, calling to him a little child, set him in the midst of them and said: “Amen I say to you, unless you change, and become like little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoever shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. And he who shall receive one such little child in my name, receives me.” (Matthew 18: 2-5)
1.3 A Child of God
The Openness and Dependency of Children
1. The happiness and simplicity of children are meant to give us a clue to God’s plan. Children have an innate trust towards their parents. We are born dependent and with an openness to life and experience. Dependency is not a bad thing, but is essential to our flourishing. It lays a foundation for us, long before we are able to take responsibility for our own lives. We have to take things on trust, believing in our parents as those who want what is good for us.
It is the same in our relationship to God. We are in fact completely dependent on God for our very existence. We live in a world created by God, and our being is constituted by an openness to others as examples of God’s love for us.
An Ambiguity
2. Although this is how God intended things to be, something went wrong. The world is now affected by an ambiguity. Things are not simply good, but we experience things we shouldn’t have to experience. We find that other people are not purely and simply loving but might have mixed motives, and might treat us in ways we find confusing and hurtful. Things are not always what they seem. We even experience this ambiguity in ourselves, and recognise that we don’t always do the right thing.
This ambiguity can plant seeds of doubt in us about God. Is God really like a loving father? Is the world really the paradise we feel it should be? What is going on?
Gifts to Lift Us Up
3. Yet even as we experience these shadows we also feel uplifted by the gifts we have received, the abilities we have, and the power of working together with others to participate in building the kind of world we want to live in. We discover there is much to like about this world, even if there are some bad things about it.
So we recognise that God has also given us the gifts to overcome some of the weaknesses and temptations that would drag us down. We cooperate with God’s grace to overcome many of the challenges we face, and help each other to do the same.
Not Just Weak, But Broken
4. Despite all this, we also see that some things are not just weak, but broken. People can wilfully harm each other, and we discover some tendency within ourselves to be indifferent to this. We find ways to distance ourselves from these failures to love.
So we experience some distancing from God. On the one hand we find it hard to accept that a good and loving God could allow such things to happen. On the other hand we fear that God will be angry and punish us for our role in causing or allowing such harm and suffering.
A Community Harmed by Selfishness
5. Although we might be complicit to some extent in doing the wrong thing, we also have our better moments. This applies not just to individuals but to communities. We recognise that something must be done to rectify the harms caused by wrongdoing. This involves holding people accountable for the harms they cause, demanding restitution, and where necessary, punishment for those who are unrepentant in the hope they will have a change of heart.
We learn these lessons as children as our parents try to instil in us an understanding of right and wrong, encouraging us to do good, to forgive little things, and to make up for any harm we might cause by our misbehaviour. They expect us to take responsibility for the harms we cause and make up for them in some suitable way.
They also teach us that God is disappointed if we do the wrong thing. God wants us to live always as brothers and sisters who love each other. God is saddened by our selfishness, but he does not leave us alone. He offers forgiveness, and help to be good.
Personal Responsibility
6. As we get older we discover that we are personally responsible for the good or bad that we do. We gain a deeper sense of personal autonomy, and a dawning realisation that we ultimately have to answer for our own actions. We will not be children forever, but will have to squarely confront who we have become, and what we will make of our lives. Yes, we are still part of a community, but there is an important sense in which we also have to stand alone before God to give an account of ourselves.
What have I done to become the kind of person God created me to be? We meet Jesus in a more demanding guise. We hear the challenge he puts before us to be genuine, no longer to hide behind excuses, or immaturity, but to face the reality of who we have become.
Becoming Family
7. Most importantly we hear Jesus calling us to the adventure of faith in him, not to struggle on in a lonely quest, but to more consciously join in with those around us who already have the faith. We are asked to walk with this community of faith, bringing Jesus into the lives of our fellow brothers and sisters in the human family. There is a sense in which we will always be like children, as long as we retain the same openness to God as we had towards our own parents when we were little. Just as we clung to our mum and dad for love, for protection, for healing, and to lift our spirits, so we must cling to Jesus.
We also need to become such ‘mums’ and ‘dads’ to those who experience the need for love, protection, healing and someone to lift their spirits, while also allowing others to be that for us when we need it. The only way to succeed in that is to stay close to Jesus.
What If We Refuse to Be Childlike?
8. Nevertheless, it remains possible that we will not allow ourselves to be those ‘little ones’. We might cling on to our own strengths and judge others for their weaknesses. Instead of forgiving, and inviting them into the community of warmth and light, we might stand on our own righteousness and leave them to fend for themselves.
Isn’t this what the Pharisees and religious leaders did to Jesus? In their judgement he was opposed to God. The measure they used was the law, and they deemed that he was so arrogant that he put himself above the law, above God’s law. But they didn’t allow themselves to be truly close to him. They followed him around; they questioned him and challenged him; but they weren’t open to finding out who he really was.
Those they considered to be outcasts and sinners did get close to him, and they did find out who he was – one who would forgive them and heal them. They were prepared to admit they were ‘children’, and so they could recognise who he was, not necessarily in theological terms, but in the reality of the effect he had on their lives. He lifted them up. He shared his time with them. He taught them genuine truths about God. He healed them.
And to those who were ready, he called them to follow him and be for others what he had been for them.