Do you ever wish you could be a child again?
I’m talking about when life felt simpler. When your biggest financial burden was counting the money in the shoebox at the lemonade stand and when your biggest fear was getting caught while trying to “kick the can.”
That was the question I sent to some editors before I wrote my first book called A Chance at Childhood Again (later renamed A Childlike Heart). A senior editor at Multnomah wrote me back and said, “Oh yes, I do long for that kind of life again.” That one response started my writing career.
It must be possible, this chance at childhood again, because Jesus offered it. Mandated it:
Matthew 18:3 (NCV) — “Then he said, ‘I tell you the truth, you must change and become like little children. Otherwise, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’”
The disciples had just asked Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” For many years, I thought the question betrayed the disciples’ pettiness—exhibit A proving their self-absorbed immaturity.
But I’ve reconsidered. Maybe it’s not a bad question. Maybe it’s the perfect question. I don’t notice frustration in Jesus’ response. Instead, He seems glad for the teachable moment.
Maybe He’s waiting for us to ask the same question—Jesus, how can I experience more of the kingdom of heaven on earth?
So, when asked, the Master Teacher uses a prop. He draws in a little child (the Greek suggests a toddler) and says, “Here is what greatness in the kingdom looks like!”
I don’t think He meant just being humble (though that’s at the top of the list). I think the Savior meant everything about a toddler is a picture of kingdom-like living.
Fresh back from family beach time, needing the proverbial vacation to rest up from my vacation, I can’t wipe the smile off my face because I spent a week playing with three-year-old granddaughter Mia. The beach is like heaven to a three-year-old (and to me) but the real ticket to heaven was looking at the beach through Mia’s eyes.
What’s the essence of the kingdom of heaven? Something a lot like a three-year-old playing on the beach. What pieces of heaven on earth did I see on display in the little girl? The list is long. Let’s start with these:
Wonder. Joy. Adventure. Love.
Wonder
Maybe the greatest thing about being three is that, every day, you get to see something you’ve never seen. You get to learn something you’ve never learned.
Three-year-olds don’t have a ho-hum, “been there, done that” attitude because they know they haven’t been there and they haven’t done that!
What wonders we saw. A hundred tiny clams digging into the wet sand and disappearing. A sand crab hiding under a kayak seat on the concrete. A sand fiddler, in hand, tickling as it dug in a three-year-old palm. Weird seaweed washed ashore.
One of the best grandfatherly privileges is to introduce a grandchild to wonder. It might be my favorite question: “Mia, have you ever seen this before?”
Maybe it’s what God loves to do with us. Maybe the Creator loves to just show us things so that we will be amazed and marvel and take delight.
One day, we took a bike ride. She sat behind me in the kid’s seat and we talked the whole time by pointing out anything that we found interesting.
“Mia, look, that’s interesting—a mailbox with a crab on it,” I might say.
“Dabba, look, a really big boat, that’s interesting,” she might point out.
We did this for a few miles.
One time she blurted out, “Dabba, I see something interesting!”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Oh, wait, never mind,” she said. “I just remembered I can’t read.”
She’d seen a sign that she assumed was interesting but remembered she was not yet literate. Oh, won’t that day be full of wonder, when she reads her first word.
The kingdom of God isn’t just full of wonder as in “signs and wonders” (though God still does work such wonders). The kingdom of God is spilling over with marvels of grace that awaken our senses and spark our imaginations.
One day, we sat at the kitchen table in hopes of me teaching her how to draw a Snoopy head. Hers soon morphed into a rocket ship as seen against a sunset soaring over blue water toward a sandy beach. Her drawing was more original than mine—better than mine because hers was full of wonder.
The kingdom of God is spilling over with marvels of grace that awaken our senses and spark our imaginations.
Joy
I can’t wipe the smile off my face after a week of playing with Mia because of all the wonder, but also, all the giggling.
According to a Psychology Today article, children laugh about 300 times a day but adults laugh only about four times a day. Maybe we need an app on our smartwatches to track our laughs like we do our steps or our sleep. Laughter can heal us.
I don’t know if they’ve researched this, but anecdotally, I’d like to suggest that children have more quality to their laughs as well. Unreserved and unconcerned about proper decorum, toddlers are masters of the drunken belly laugh. Their laughs take over their bodies.
And silliness begets silliness. Three-year-olds are great at letting laughter spawn more laughter until all the world seems funny.
I laughed all week and everything inside me felt better for it.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It means that where the Spirit of God is, there is joy. It means that the kingdom must be spilling over with joy all the time. Paul said it succinctly:
Romans 14:17 — “The kingdom of God consists of … righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Where the Spirit of God is, there is joy.
Adventure
When you’re just three, the whole world looks big to you. Anything can be an adventure.
At the restaurant one night, she bravely decided to try biting a lemon wedge just to see what kind of face she’d make.
She “helped” me put together the bike seat and install it on the bike. It was her first ride on the back of a bike. What an adventure!
We’d pass pedestrians and Mia would say, “They can’t catch us—we’re going soo fast.”
I can promise you I’m no Lance Armstrong, but, to her, we were blazing cyclists.
We went kayaking in the Coastal Waterway hugging the edges away from the big boats, but we felt the waves of some yachts. What an adventure!
While quietly rowing in the marsh at high tide we saw a sea turtle stick its head out. What an adventure!
Though Mia judged it dangerous, we risked it all and beached ourselves on the deserted island we call “Crab Island” for all its small, burrowing crabs. The sand was squishy. We secured our rubber kayak and let our life jackets float us freely in the salty water like we were marooned travelers refreshing themselves. What an adventure!
There’s nothing humdrum about kingdom living. When Jesus invited the disciples to follow Him, He was offering them a daring adventure.
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men,” Jesus told Peter. There was something about the call that was adventuresome enough to arouse fear!
Whatever you call Christianity, don’t call it boring!
There’s nothing humdrum about kingdom living.
Love
The greatest thing about a three-year-old is their capacity to give and receive love.
I don’t just mean the sloppy kisses and the full-body bear hugs—I mean the deep heart connection that a healthy toddler can make.
It’s what I love most about a grandchild—it’s someone who will believe my love and believe the love of God. After four decades of preaching and trying a thousand different ways to put the love of God on display in the Gospel proclamation, I’m quite sure that no one gets it more readily than a three-year-old.
No, a three-year-old can’t understand my detailed Greek exposition of the word “agape.” But she can understand better than anyone what agape feels like.
After a full morning of hole digging, castle constructing, wave jumping, shell finding and kite flying, Mia needed me to carry her across the hot sand as we headed in for lunch. She was quiet for a moment, then close to my ear, quietly spoke:
“I love you all the way across the ocean, Dabba.”
“I love you all the way across the ocean and back,” I said.
We didn’t carry our contest of words any further—she just smiled and kissed my cheek because she believed me.
Love isn’t a theoretical concept—it isn’t merely a theological doctrine. It is an experience. It is an attachment that is experienced in relationship and sensed in the heart.
Little children are really good at sensing that love. Adults often have too many walls around the heart to sense the love of God and others. The walls designed to protect us from imposters also rob us of real lovers of our souls.
While driving to the Boundary House in Calabash, NC for dinner, I heard Mia talking to her mom in the back seat.
“Mom, can I sit with Dabba at dinner?”
“Sure,” Amy said. “Are you two buddies?”
“Yeah,” Mia responded. “We go good together.”
Become like a little child and you’ll realize more and more that you and God go good together.
Become like a little child and you’ll realize more and more that you and God go good together.
May You Be Refreshed
I hope you get some time at the beach or the lake or the mountains or the pool this summer. But, if you’re looking for abundant life, find a toddler and rediscover wonder, joy, adventure and love.
Real refreshment and deep restoration aren’t ultimately found in a vacation destination. They are found when God restores the heart of a child within us.
Jesus offers us a chance at childhood again. Take Him up on His offer and discover greatness in the kingdom!
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