Confession time: Last year I did not put up a Christmas Tree.
What? No Christmas Tree? Yeah, no Christmas Tree. I know you’re shocked, but with adult children, the magic of Christmas faded a little bit. Shame on me.
This year is going to be different.
Jesus said in Matthew 8:3, “Unless you become like a little child you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” I don’t think Jesus was telling us that we need to be childish. There’s a difference between childish and childlike. Childish emphasizes some of the negative qualities of childhood. Childlike emphasizes some of the positive qualities of childhood.
The more we know of God, the simpler and more childlike will be our faith.
– J. G. Machen.
When God came into this world, He came as a child. Yet when He grew into a man He did not lose the positive characteristics of childlike behavior.
Some of the positive qualities of becoming childlike:
- Wonder
- Excitement
- Imagination
- Innocence
- Accepting of Others
- Faith/Trust
- Giving and Generosity
I love the movie “Big,” staring Tom Hanks. The movie is about a 12- year old boy (Josh Baskin) who made a wish to grow up and overnight turned into a 30-year old man. So here is this 12- year old boy in a 30- year old body. It’s a comedy and yet one of the beautiful things about the movie is how this boy in an adult body helps all the adults around him recapture their childhood sense of wonder.
In a sense (and it’s a stretch…) that’s sort of what Jesus did in becoming a man. He helped all those around him not only get a glimpse of what childlike faith looks like, but also what God looks like. In fact, on one occasion He told His disciples, “You’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.”
So, this Christmas let us all try to be a little more intentional about seeing Christmas through the eyes of a Child lest we MISS something significant.
O Come Let Us Adore Him!
Pastor Bill