Are you Childlike?

JESUS says in the gospels, "unless you become like a little child..." I have always been intrigued with that statement. It goes so against the normal for us. We are always trying to get each other to grow up! We want our kids to take more responsibility, to be older, to do things like adults. If you have a childlike adult you will spend more time criticizing them than praising them for following scripture, think about that!

As I pondered that quote about being like a child I started thinking about my own kids and the kids I see that are so wondered about the little things in life. I have a picture of one of my daughters who was leaning over some rocks on the edge of a lake looking intently into the water. There were minnows swimming right around the rock she was perched on and she was fascinated by them. I beet she stared at them for a full five minutes before I told her to come on we were moving on somewhere else. I remember my oldest son one time just laying on his back in the middle of the yard staring at the sky. "What are you doing?" I asked him. "Nothing" was the reply that I got. Doing nothing seems like a waste of time to me, doesn't he have something better to do than to stare at the clouds? I saw a baby yesterday sitting in a baby swing with a mobile above its head. That baby just laid there and watched the animals come and hover over here head and then move on as another took its place hovering over her. She studied each one intently, her eyes moving from color to color and place to place before the next one came into view.

I think that is what JESUS was talking about when he said to become as a little child. That we notice the little things and are filled with awe and wonder at the creation that was made for us. Like the minnows in the lake, the cloud forms in the sky or the stripes on a tiger, take a few minutes today to really do... nothing and be as a little child for a moment.