God, the Trustworthy Parent
Scripture Reading — Matthew 18:1-5
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Growing up and getting older can be difficult to do. Our responsibilities and obligations grow, and often our imaginations slowly fade. There are positives to growing mature and aging, but I believe many of us wouldn’t mind taking a step back to relive some of the good times we had when we were children. Can you remember when simple things brought you a lot of joy? We might refer to such times as “good old days” if we had nice childhood memories and time seemed to move slower, family meals seemed to last longer, and interruptions from phones were less common.
But we do have to grow up eventually. If that is the case, though, why would Jesus encourage his followers to “become like little children”? According to Christ, the way in which people inherit and enjoy the glory of God’s kingdom is to have the sincere, trusting faith that a child has for a trustworthy parent. And that simply means allowing God to shape our hearts and minds into that of a child who trusts in him fully, knowing that he cares and will always do what is best for his children. It means allowing our sanctified imaginations to wonder about all the things that our big, awesome, and powerful God can do—and how he can involve us in his work in this world.
Great God, thank you for the reminder that having childlike faith draws us close to you. By your Spirit, reignite our imaginations and fill us with excitement about what you have in store for us to do. Amen.
About the author — Ben McKnight
Ben McKnight was born and raised in the West Michigan area. He has been married to Kayla for 14 years and has been a dad to Leo for almost five years. After graduating from Calvin Theological Seminary in 2017, he served as a pastor in Grant, Michigan, until spring 2021. He then served as a chaplain for a year at a local retirement community, and then with ReFrame Ministries’ advancement team. In spring 2024 he transitioned and began serving as the pastor of a church in Cedar Springs, Michigan.
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