Playing Their Way into the Kingdom
In my university-level child development class, I start every semester the same way. I read the first few verses of Matthew 18. In this passage, Christ tells His disciples that they must become like children to enter His Kingdom. Then I pose the following questions: What is it about children that gives them such easy access to God’s Kingdom? What can we learn from children about salvation? The answers often focus on children’s innocence or their unquestioning obedience to parents and teachers. (Then I think, “Goodness, these college students haven’t spent much time with children, have they?”). Rarely do my students mention how a child’s capacity to get caught up in the here and now, to not worry about the past or future, to enjoy a process and refrain from judgment, and to not be bound by “one right answer” might play a role in inheriting eternal life. And yet these characteristics demonstrate intimacy with God: living in His eternal now, not passing judgment, and setting aside our expectations and being open to the surprising ways He may work in our lives.