“Unless you change and become like little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 18:3). What an extraordinary statement from Jesus. To fully participate in the life of God’s Kingdom we must be willing to develop the heart of a child. So what does it mean for an adult to develop the heart of a child?
We adults have a tendency to be self-sufficient, to rely on our own power and strength, to be independent, to sort out our lives ourselves. But the truth is self-sufficiency does not work. A time will come when our own power and strength will fail us. To develop the heart of a child is to accept that we cannot go it alone, that we are too weak and powerless to save ourselves. It is to hand the control of our lives over to the Father of Jesus. The Father of Jesus can be trusted. He is on our side. He knows and wants what is best for us. He is the one who saves us. To develop the heart of a child is to let the Father save us. It is to let ourselves be dependent on him.
Another tendency we adults have is to make ourselves acceptable to God by our own efforts. We think that we have to win God’s approval and favour by doing good deeds. We are convinced that we need to prove to God that we are worthy of his love, that in fact we are worth loving. But this is not the Gospel message. According to Jesus the Father’s love is gift, not achievement. As the prodigal son discovered the Father’s love does not have to be earned. It is free. The Father is pleased with us because we are and as we are. To develop the heart of a child is to let the Father love us in the way the Father wants to love us – unconditionally. This is the only way the Father knows how to love.
Perhaps the difficulty we adults have is we think we need to be perfect to be loved by God. But God is not interested in our perfection. Like a good parent he knows we are weak and prone to failure. He knows that we are likely to make a mess of things. We see our weaknesses and failures as an obstacle; the Father sees them as a strength and an opportunity. Our weaknesses and failures allow us to throw ourselves on to the mercy of the Father. This is what a child does knowing that its parents will embrace it. There is nothing that delights the Father more than to be able to hold us in his compassionate and tender embrace.
Therese of Lisieux, known as Therese of the Child Jesus, once said that when she died she wanted to come before God with empty hands. Therese obviously came to the realisation that all is gift and grace and that therefore the only thing to do is to surrender and trust. Surrender and trust come easy to children but not to adults. For this reason adults may need to have experiences of failure and brokenness and disappointment and loss. It is these experiences that surrender us and enable us to develop the heart of a child. It would seem that the Father wants us to come home with empty hands.