Matthew 18:3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

It’s interesting, and a little awkward, that I quoted this verse just two days ago, not realizing it was in the reading for today. Maybe God’s trying to drive a point home! Passages like this should impact every parent and everyone involved otherwise with children. We generally forget that, compared to God, we are never more than children, regardless of how old we are physically. We tend to lose our sense of wonder at all the marvelous things in creation, our gratitude for God’s grace to us. Of course, children can fail to be grateful as well, but that’s one of the points of good parenting, nurturing gratitude. Giving in to every whim isn’t the way to do it! I won’t belabor points I made two days ago, but I think it would be wise for every believer to meditate on how childlike they are before God. We are to be mature in many ways, as Paul and the writer to the Hebrews both stressed, but at the same time we need to be Daddy’s kids, trusting and delighting in Him at all times, respecting His discipline and reciprocating His love. We tend to feel like salvation is transactional, when the ultimate, and really only, transaction was completed at Calvary. We aren’t to be spoiled brats – God doesn’t want any of those – but the better we know God, the easier it is to trust Him and, as He told me, rest, relax, and rejoice in Him. Since we have the perfect Father, we should strive to always be better children.

My physical father wasn’t perfect, but he was definitely on the better end on the scale. I don’t think I ranked that high on the scale as a child! I’m grateful for the way God kept me from many of the things that snare so many people, but I still didn’t stick to the path perfectly by any means. As now a great-grandfather, I am still a child of God, and I must never forget it. I am to be as trusting as my great-granddaughter, delighting in all the love that is showered out on me, just as she does. At the same time, I am responsible and accountable for various things in ways she doesn’t yet dream of. By God’s grace and wisdom I am to be both mature in faith and childlike in my trust, seeing and interacting with the people around me as He desires, so that they too may be drawn to repentance and faith, for their salvation and His glory.

Father, thank You for the clear awareness that I can’t possibly do this on my own, but that You can do it in and through me. Thank You for yesterday and all it held, even with all the emotional upheaval. May I indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You throughout today, as a trusting child, so that You will be free to do all that You want to through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!