How are we to become “as little children?” Many sermons have
been preached on this phrase. They often focus on the wonder of childhood, the
innocence, the trusting nature of children, the supposed purity of kids.
Considering that Lao Tzu wrote this phrase 500 years before Christ, perhaps the
traditional thoughts have been correct. But this morning I had a new
impression.
I was praying that God and I walk this day together, and I
mused “Am I wanting You to join me? More likely I should be joining You.” For a
split-second I felt I had been presumptuous to think of God coming to match my
short-sighted stroll: “Best that I match His.” But just as quickly I thought of
God’s incomprehensibly gigantic gait, and I realized that He has always shortened
His stride for us. And I felt like a little child proudly hustling along trying
to walk as grown up and important as his Daddy who is certainly “the strongest
man in the whole world!”
And suddenly a realization came to me about
birthday-counting kids; namely, they focus on growing up. How do we come to the
place as adults that we think we have finished that? Walking in the shadow of
our great big Daddy, we must know that only One has ever been able to match God
stride for stride and honestly say “It is finished.”
