"Childlike"

During World War II, Andre Malraux met a Roman Catholic priest. He said, “Tell me, father, what have you learned after listening all these years to all those confessions?”

The priest replied, “I have learned that people are not as happy as they appear to be, and that none of us, finally, really grow up.”

How true! How wise! Jesus called a child into a circle of discussion with his disciples and said, “Unless you become like children, you can never enter the kingdom of Heaven.”  I think Jesus was distinguishing between childish behavior and childlike behavior. To violate the trust in a child’s eyes is evil!

What I see in children is a sense of wonder. Chesterton wrote, “The world does not lack for wonders only for a sense of wonder.” The wide-eyed wonder of children is a source of joy.  I enjoy their squeaks of amazement and delight. Aristotle said, “The world begins with wonder.’ I am certain you would add to that statement, “and ends with wonder too.”

In Philippians chapter three, the Apostle Paul is cognizant of God’s call to us – that of maturity.  Grow up in Christ. His letter says, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already achieved perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.”

Yes, I keep working on it – less childish and more childlike.

Blessings!