.innocent.
One of the major requirements in the Bible is an erasing of all preconceived notions here-to-for about God. Coming to it with frictions or fusses (even if it’s just hearsay) is the wrong way to read it. You can’t read the Bible all the while thinking, “I’m guilty of sin! I’m such a terrible person! I’ll never live right!” because that means you’ll only focus on the parts that talk about your sin. You can’t bring yourself to the Bible wanting to see what Jesus says about social justice because you’ll only find stuff about social justice. That’s the wrong way. The right way? Like you’re innocent.
Maybe this is why Jesus asks us to come to him as his children?
This is my Bible that I’ve been reading out of since I was 18. It’s been to four different countries with me. I tend to scrawl over the pages off and on when I’m overwhelmed with how much is actually in this book. So, if you want to know which bible is mine, look for a bunch of chicken scratch; they’re as noticeable as southern mullets at classical ballet recital.
I was reading the other day in Matthew 18 (page 970 in my NIV travel bible). The disciples come to Jesus with another question that I’m sure Jesus rolls his eyes about: “Jesus, who is the greatest in the kingdom?” Jesus says this:
” 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ “
–Matthew 18:2-4
Jesus goes on to say that anyone who causes the little children to sin would have a better time being drowned once Jesus finds out about it.
Yikes.
Something significant, though, is the writer of Matthew chose to write down Jesus saying a similar thing later on in chapter 19 (which is the next page in my bible). People kept bringing their children for Jesus to bless, crowding the Rabbi and his disciples, so the disciples kept shooing them. Jesus told them to stop dismissing them, saying “…the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (19:14)” Why would the writer go out of this way to mention twice, both times very close to each other, about the likeliness of children being favored by God?
As I read this section of scripture, I think of my niece, Makayla.
That’s her. She’s a little miracle. We love her. I love her.
She doesn’t talk yet, but I’m sure once she does she’ll have us all rolling. Learning how to use the brain is a funny and frightening thing. One thing I always see in her, however, is innocence. On human terms, she’s innocent. She’s got the cleanest slate in the world, white and quiet as snowfall. As she’s learning, do you think that she’ll actually be asking questions with motives, spins, or preconceived notions about life, trying to get the answer she wants?
I don’t think she will.
I think she’ll have such an innocent curiosity about everything in front of her and she won’t have time to think about it. She won’t know anything. People will have to teach her. I feel very badly for myself and whoever else comes to the Bible and to Jesus and especially to the Church or Christianity with such arrogance to say that they have it figured out.
I also believe that she’s got three things that we all need to have in the storefront windows of our brains:
1. She has wonder. I mean, she’s one year old. Everything is still requiring slow blinks and furrowed brows. When she gets a new toy, she looks at it with a, “Okay…wow. This thing is really new to me. Do I hold it like this? Does this get held? Do I eat it? Nope, can’t swallow it whole, so I can’t eat it…” What if we looked at God with the same wonder? What would happen is that we would believe our prayers because we’re letting God “WOW!” us?
2. She’s naive. She has no idea what anything is about, so has to continuously ask questions as she gets older. Why do you think babies cry when we say, “Don’t”? It probably has something to do with the nature of a baby crying. All the time. It also might have to do with the fact that their brains honestly can’t process a “no” yet and they cry. They cry because they just don’t know why they can’t. I’m not saying we have to cry, but I am saying we have to admit when we don’t know anything. Especially when we come to read God’s word or pray to him. And after that, we need to let him say no, sometimes.
3. She’s dependent on someone that knows more than her. With a sense of wonder and a bit of ignorance, she’s not going to be able to get much information from herself. She knows, literally, nothing. She learns on her own and has some innate abilities, yes, but the nurture, not the nature, is what will cause her to grow in ways that nature can’t make her grow. It’s the same with us. When we are in the dark and amazed by it, we have to go to God for direction, clarity, comfort, wisdom, etc.
I hope that I can be like a child. I hope that I can let God “WOW!” me ten years from now. Even twenty…even tomorrow…
.grace.and.peace.
Great Job on this entry. I really enjoyed it.
Wonder is important. The trick of the matter is that to wonder entails knowledge enough to distinguish between what we know and what we don’t know: which means that the way in which a child wonders (altruistically known as ‘unconscious incompetence’) is different from how an adult often wonders (the analog being conscious incompetence – or in this case, conscious ignorance). The catch: we cannot read the Bible as Christians without maintaining Christian presuppositions: which arises through a new kind of infancy (unconscious incompetence/ignorance) that we can call “new birth” I suppose… yet after God imparts to us the faith resulting in our new birth, we come to mature in our thinking (conscious ignorance) ever maintaining Augustine’s key insight: si comprendis non est deum – if you understand it, then it is not God. So wonder is essential, but an empty head is impossible. (I am writing my thesis on this, so I couldn’t hold back from commenting – I appreciate your insights, especially that you highlight the need for Wonder).