Faith like Faith’s

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:2-3

To become like little children… Isn’t that kind of the opposite of what we tell our children day in and day out? We say, “grow up” “don’t act like a baby” and things of that nature. Here, Jesus is not advocating throw down tantrums or pouting. He isn’t saying that we should all walk around grabbing what we want and saying, “mine!” No, what he is saying is that there is something enormous in the simple faith of a child.

My granddaughter, appropriately named Faith, taught me a lesson the other day that I will not soon forget. I had received a very sad email from my dearest friend Mary. The contents of the message just broke my heart. Mary is over a thousand miles away from me right now and I felt at a loss. How could I help? Then I realized that at that moment I had two very young, very pure hearts, available to pray with me. I went to Faith and her sister Madelyn and asked them to say a prayer with me for Aunt Mary. What came out of Faith’s mouth was so beautiful it literally made me cry.

Faith prayed from that sweet heart of hers in a way that I have heard before but never from one so young. She prayed for peace and healing. She prayed for Mary’s extended family, who I had not mentioned. She prayed with eloquent simplicity and some childish phrases. At one point she asked, “Pretty, pretty please Jesus.”

When she was finished praying I asked her who taught her to pray like that. It wasn’t me. I’m guilty of the “God bless” and “thank you Lord” variety of prayer with the girls. When I asked she looked at me, shrugged and said, “Nobody. I just said it.” When I told her grandfather he asked her the same question, to which she replied, “It was just in my mind.”

Just in her mind to plead, innocently but with total confidence and conviction. She asked me afterward why I was crying. “Are you so sad for Aunt Mary?” I said of course, but that I was also so proud of her. That seemed to puzzle her a bit. She didn’t see herself as having done anything noteworthy.

Faith is only five years old. Her life of late has been riddled with uncertainty and disappointment. Her tender heart has been broken in ways that she cannot understand. For such a young person she knows intimately what betrayal and abandonment look like. And yet, her heart remains open. Her desire is for God. As her gram, who cannot make her life perfect, I was so grateful for a glimpse of how close she is to God, how deeply He cares for her. No one can pray as Faith did, with such deep sincerity, without knowing God.

To become like little children…. Here I have been thinking that I need to set a good example for Faith and all my other grandchildren, and now I see that in some ways, I need to look to them. Faith like a child, faith like Faith’s, is unhindered by how tos and have tos. It is simple and lovely and quite frankly I want my faith to look just like that.

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