Little Children

Then people began to bring babies to him so that he could put his hands on them. But when the disciples noticed it, they frowned on them. But Jesus called them to him, and said, “You must let little children come to me, and you must never prevent their coming. The kingdom of God belongs to little children like these. I tell you, the man who will not accept the kingdom of God like a little child will never get into it at all.” Luke 18:15-17

Now that’s a big statement; certainly one that bids us pause to consider the lives and lifestyle of “little children.” (And while I was pondering that exact thought, my three-year-old son woke up and came to join me in the kitchen. So, for the next 20ish minutes, I simply watched him and wrote down everything he happened to do.) Here’s a list of attributes that might help us and lead us in our intimacy with Jesus…
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• Woke up immediately looking for dad
• Gets into dad’s lap and nestles in
• Asks for the first thing that crosses his mind (in this case, a cup of milk, or “nilk,” as he prefers to pronounce it)
• Goes off to the next thing that occurs to him
• Continually asks for exactly what he wants
• Plays with complete concentration
• Shows dad exactly what he’s playing at (about six times in 20 minutes)
• Runs in with a smile to see “what’re you doing, daddy?”
• Goes after real delight in all he’s doing
• Does a ridiculous little dance, suddenly
• Expects that a meal will be forthcoming shortly and, sometimes, remembers to say “thank you”
• Says “I love you, daddy” as it suddenly occurs to him
• Wants to go outside and run wild
• Has no sense of time and certainly not of timeliness or hurrying
• Smiles, with eyes twinkling, about nothing in particular
• Says what he’s feeling when he feels it
• Makes his needs known
• Wants to relate the dream he had in the night
• Is amazed when something new happens