“Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them. (Mk 10: 14-16)
OK. So I am in Senegal, West Africa while writing this reflection. Elise and I got here 2 weeks ago visiting my daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren. They are 5 and 2 (the grandkids…not my daughter and son-in-law). They are all boys and the younger ones are twins. Did I mention that for the first week we were here, my daughter was in Mauritania on a business trip?! And that her husband was off most of the day working. They do have a housekeeper/nanny but she only speaks French and Wolof (local tribal language). Me? I barely speak English. So communicating with her involved a series of grunts, body language and poor attempts at Google Translator. I once asked her if there was bread in the house and she interpreted that as me asking her to go a few blocks to the local grocery stand to go buy some. I am now hoping Elise learns Wolof. Think how much I can get her to do for me just through poor translation!
On the day I am writing this reflection, we have finished an “action packed” morning of breakfast, building a fort with chairs and a blanket, reading…sort of, putting stickers on paper, playing catch and putting together a wooden train set. Did I mention that Elise was ill and sleeping most of the morning? Guess who got left in charge? Yup. Little ‘ol me. Now you have to understand that when my kids were little, and one of them did not make up their room as instructed for the 435th time, my response was to dump all their stuff out on the driveway. And when the litterbox was not cleaned? You got it…put that sucker right in their bed. Patience and right judgement have never been my strong suits.
By the end of the morning, pieces of train track were being taken apart (after I had painstakingly built a beautiful, if I say so myself, circuit) and being launched between the twins at each other (BTW. I can’t tell them apart, so I refer to them only as “The Twins”. I am sure they will become mafia hit men as they are older and will go free because no one can positively identify which one did the dirty deed). My reaction to this peppering with railroad rockets? Jumped off the couch and tore the rest of the track apart myself, yelled out disciplinary diatribes, put the train set away and begged for the nanny to out them all down for a nap!
Let the children come to me!? I don’t think so!! It was more like, “get these rugrats outta here! I need to check my email!” We see this patient, welcoming picture of Jesus as he calls the children to Him and envision them all sitting on His lap and gathering around Him. After this week my view of this scene would likely also include nasal mucus and diapers in desperate need of being changed. I think the disciples had it right when they turned to rebuking them. I did a little rebuking myself.
But Jesus made it very clear to His followers, and to us, that we need to approach the Kingdom of God as children. In a childlike way. Not childish, as I am so good at reproducing, but childlike. What exactly does that mean. What I found in one of the sermons I read researching this passage was that childlike faith and Christian practice is highlighted by two characteristics:
- Helplessness – It means that we do not have the notion that we can do it all on our own. That we need God…and my wife, it seems, as well. We in no way are always compassionate, merciful and holy. We have many, many weak moments where we sometimes need to just stop and say, “God, I cannot do this alone. I give up being the hero. Help!” Think of being so overwhelmed by something as a child, having no idea how to get out of a bad situation. Only to have one or both of your parents come along and fix everything. That is the helplessness I think God asks of us. To not be afraid to throw our hands in the air and say, “I am done”
- Dependence – A natural outgrowth of helplessness is dependence. If we recognize our inability to handle all situations ourselves, and need to rely on God to jump in, then we also recognize our dependence on God. Not our independence or individualism. We NEED God as a child needs their parents. We cannot be saved on our own. We need the strength and graces that God provides.
And if we acknowledge our helplessness and our dependence on God then our identities become wrapped up with and are one with God. As children, who are we. Really. We are the offspring of our parents. Our parents gave us our identity. When we were out playing in the neighborhood, people would label me as Joseph and Mary’s kid (no, not THAT Joseph and Mary!). In the same way, when people see us as descendants of Jesus, as His followers, that is who we become.
I recently had a friend call me “preacher” when referring to my Facebook posts. I asked him what he meant. He said most of the things I post on FB are religious in nature. And he was right. I like to repost things I read. Meditations, verses, video reflections. Things I think are valuable for people to understand. Some will see Jesus in these posts. Most will not. But it felt good to be identified as “preacher” to my friend. Because it likewise identifies me as a follower…as a child…of Christ. And that is an identity that will ultimately get me Home.
I gotta go. The kids are up from their nap. Now, where is that duct tape?
