Spring is coming! At least, that’s what they tell us.
In my part of the world we still have snow on the ground, but that doesn’t stop us from dreaming about green grass, blossoming flowers and warmer weather.
To celebrate the end of one season and the beginning of another, we decided to do some spring cleaning last weekend. As we rummaged through our closet and storage spaces we discovered a cardboard box full of keepsakes and memories we’ve collected over the years.
Inside this dusty box we found lots of old photographs, papers and trinkets. But one of the most interesting items we found was a creative writing notebook my youngest daughter produced as a fourth-grade student in a Christian school (she’s currently a college freshman).
The three-ring binder had writing prompts at the top of each page to stimulate ideas, with blank lines below for the student to write their responses.
On one page, the question was: “When you get to heaven, what is the first question you will ask Jesus?” Interesting question to ask a fourth grader!
Well, she didn’t limit herself to asking Jesus just one question. She broke the rules and wrote down several hypothetical questions. Here they are, exactly as she wrote them…
WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN
I would probably ask Jesus a lot of questions, but I think
the first one would be, “Where do I live?”
The second one would be, “What do I eat in Heaven?”
The third one would be, “Will I get to see my family here?”
The fourth one would be, “What am I wearing?”
The fifth one would be, “What time is it?”
The sixth one would be, “Do I have to go to school?”
The seventh question would be, “What can I do to have fun?”
And the last one, “How can I serve you?”
Jesus said that unless we become as little children we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). You see, children are not concerned with heady, complicated theological issues. They ask simple questions and are content with simple answers.
The trouble with a lot of Christians is we don’t always say what we really think; we say what we think other Christians will approve of. The faith of a child is refreshingly honest, curious, and entirely without fear of what anyone else thinks.
How can we have faith like a child? It begins with a simpler definition of what faith really is. My faith is not a mystical force, a detailed statement of beliefs, or an exhaustive list of religious nuances.
My faith can be summed up into a single word: trust. To have faith means to trust God – that He is Who He says He is, and He will do what He says He will do. The Bible shows us that with a little trust in God we can move mountains, raise the dead, and turn the world upside down.
I think we have made faith in Jesus way too complicated for the average person to comprehend. I think we need to become like little children again.
