Child-like Simplicity

“Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” (Matthew 19:13-15)

When I was a child I grew up different from most, I was raised in a third world country. I rode my bike everywhere, and went fishing in the rice patties, I explored the forest, built forts, played with fireworks, chased chickens, and went to primary in a 30 kid school house. I quite enjoyed my life in innocents, I was happy.

I grew up around corruption, riots, and frequent inflation. According to the world my country was in dire trouble and in need of much reform, but if you asked 8 year old Justin the country was perfect. And if you ask present day Justin, it was not the country that was perfect but the mindset of my younger self.

As I grew older I began to enjoy electronics, movies, Playstation, Gameboy, cassettes, then CDs, and finally iPods. As I spent more and more of my time with these I found less and less enjoyment in the simplicity of life. Instead of swimming in the watering hole I would play videogames. My parents would tell me and my younger brother to go outside! Have some fun! And we would sit in the grass and grumble about how boring the outdoors were, and how there was nothing to do. The fun had been sucked out of the outdoors. Some may argue that I was getting older and my interested had shifted, I believe that my interests had been numbed.

There is such a joy to be found in the simplicity of life, when we clutter our lives with useless things we lose sight of what is truly important. So many things in this world are temporary. Money, Houses, food, clothing, life. There are only two things that will truly carry on into eternity, the love of God and the love of others.

Francis Chan a praised author of Crazy Love wrote that his grandmother went to a play with his family and he asked her if she was enjoying herself and she said, “not really, I don’t really want to be sitting in this theater when Christ comes back.” Grandma Chan is expecting Jesus to come at any moment. I don’t want to be sitting in front of this computer when Jesus comes.

Jesus didn’t want his disciples to hinder the little children from coming to him, for the kingdom belongs to those with child-like faith, those who are unhindered by the distractions of this world. Love for Christ like a small child loves his parents.