“Let me tell you, if you don’t turn yourself around and become like children, you’ll never enter the empire of Heaven. Therefore, those who lower themselves to [a] child’s level are greatest in the empire of Heaven.”
Matthew 18:3-4 (Scholars Version
Currently, one of Micah’s (my 15-month old son) favorite things and phrases is “kitty cat.” He always wants to go look for “kitty cat,” and yesterday he wanted to go outside to look for “kitty cat” (presumably our cat Rascal who has been away from home for a few days). Well, I thought to myself that going outside to look for “kitty cat” would also be a good time to get the mail, so I picked Micah up and headed outside. Micah immediately wanted down to walk by himself!
He pointed a few places saying, “Kitty-cat,” and then got distracted. So, I asked him if he wanted to go with me to get the mail. He immediately started walking toward the mailbox.
I helped him step off the curb, and we began to walk toward the mail box on the other side of our cul-de-sac. As we neared the mailbox, Micah got distracted again by something over by the road, so we veered off into another direction.
When he got to the edge of the road, he started walking along the road toward our alley. At the alley, he wanted to continue along the road, but I finally diverted his attention so we could walk back toward the house. After about 10 feet it was obvious his little legs were tired as he kept losing his balance and falling. After about 10 more feet of this up-and-down scenario, he apparently decided to just take a rest on the curb where he sat down.
There by the curb was a smashed bottle cap, trash in my eyes but apparently treasure in his. He picked that cap up and turned it every which-a-way examining it from every angle. Then he began to drop it on the side walk, pick it up, and drop it again – over and over! After a while, he began to look it over yet again. Then he started scraping it on the concrete back and forth: “scrape, scrape; scrape, scrape.” Then he’d look it over again. Several combinations of the above went on for at least 7 minutes before I got bored and picked Micah up to take him back home with that bottle cap clutched firmly in his hand.
Often we are chastised to be careful not to get distracted in our faith. “Stay focused,” we are told, “and don’t let anything keep us from our goal.” There is some value to this, but I also question this concept as it assumes that there is only one aspect to our life of faith. If we serve an infinite God, can our journey of faith be reduced in such a manner? Likewise, what if an aspect of our faith is not being very fruitful (like looking for “kitty cat” who is beyond our current reach); doesn’t it make sense to focus on an area that is fruitful, like seeking and finding treasure (like a smashed bottle cap)? We can come back to that other aspect of faith later in our journey of faith (just as Micah wanted to look for “kitty cat” later in the day), but in the meantime, we can be fruitful in other ways.
Sometimes, we are also told what is treasure and what is not, and we are not given an opportunity to decide for ourselves. I could have taken that bottle cap away from Micah, since in my definition it was worthless trash. Micah had another definition, though, that increased my appreciation for the simpleness of that treasure. His inquisitiveness reminded me that there is probably treasure in many things in my life of faith that I have been told or have labeled myself as trash. We need to approach the world and our journeys of faith with a willingness to look for treasure in what appears to be trash – and trash in what appears to be treasure.
Questions to ponder:
- How can our lives of faith be more multifaceted, mirroring the multifaceted nature of God?
- What in our journeys of faith needs to be re-evaluated to determine if they are really trash or treasure?
- How can we regain the inquisitive nature of a child in our lives of faith?
(Originally posted at http://fumcwf.org/archives/4680 under the title, “Thoughts for Lent: Faith of a Child,” on March 9, 2011)
