Second Childhood

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

SECOND CHILDHOOD

Mark 10:13-16

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."  16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

NIV

Once again we are admonished to be like little children. We can clearly see that we need to accept the kingdom of God as little children accept it otherwise we are not going to be able to enter it. So what good is our abiding by all the rules and regulations we have decided to be the right ones? What good is it for us to try our very best to live a good life, making a list of the do’s and don’ts and checking it off each day, feeling good that the do’s outweigh the don’ts?  What good is it to serve in some ministry? What good is anything unless we accept the kingdom of God as a little child? We can act all grown up, being so responsible, being so adult, but that is not going to get us into the kingdom of God. Children simply accept things for what they are, while we adults have to figure out exactly how it works, what is it purpose, how can we use it, does it really mean what it says? It would seem that we have make the kingdom of God so complicated that it would take a scholar or a theologian to explain it to us, while it is so simply to children. If we give our children a candy bar, they are so happy and rip open the wrapper and eat it, while we have to check to see how many calories, the amount of sugar, carbohydrates and whatever else then decide  we better not, because we already are too fat, and this simply is not good for us. That may be the exact way we approach the kingdom of God. So then we are left with the simple truth, accept the kingdom of God for what it is. Don’t try to make it into something it is not, just take it as is, with all its guarantees and expressed warranties. We could put it another way, by saying that if we are born again, we are born again as a little children, not as an adult. Jesus also said that in order for us to enter the kingdom of God we must be born again, a new start, without any adult knowledge of the kingdom we are born into. So what is keeping us from being child-like in our faith in the kingdom of God? It would seem that if we are too adult we need to get back to our second childhood.