Revealed to Children

“O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! (Mt. 11:25 NLT)

God calls us to live with paradox. In the Kingdom, the first are last; strength is revealed through weakness; the way to find our lives is to lose them. This is so profoundly counter-intuitive that these seeming contradictions are hard to understand, let alone try to live out. Yet this is what Jesus calls us to when He says to each one, “Come, follow Me.”

In a world built on competency and personal progress, Jesus tells us that what really matters is to live with the simple faith of a child. I have been thinking about this over the past couple of days; in a span of only a few hours, I was twice confronted with this truth.

I spoke with a friend who had been ministering with me recently in Nicaragua. Last week, he was teaching a gathering about healing and the Kingdom of God. On Friday night, he invited the sick to come forward; between 60-70 people did, and everyone reported total healing or significant improvement. Sitting at the back of the meeting was a 5 year-old girl who was born with cerebral palsy. After years of treatment she was still unable to walk without leg braces; as well, her legs and feet were in constant pain. Her parents did not take her forward; she had received prayer a number of times in the past with no apparent result and they did not want to put their daughter through that again. However, she turned to them and said, “People are being healed. Please carry me to the front.” Her parents did what she asked, and a few moments later she was receiving prayer. Her braces were removed and she began to walk. Then she began to dance. Her parents reported the next day that this little girl was up in the middle of the night, walking, dancing and running around the house. I cannot imagine the joy that family felt.

Two friends reported that while driving to church, they passed two homeless people standing at an intersection. Their six year-old daughter called out, “I need some money. We have to help them!” Instead, they quickly bought meals for them. My friends said that, without their young daughter, they would have simply driven by, without even noticing them. A few days before that, this little girl came to her mother with a note: “I want to be hungry.” When asked what this note meant, she said that she wanted to be like the homeless people who are always so hungry. Then she suggested the family have a day without eating to they could remember the hungry.

Two stories told to me in a single day. A coincidence? No, I think the whisper of heaven, reminding me how the Kingdom comes, and to whom.

For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. (Lu 18:16 NLT)