I have often thought about Jesus’ encouragement to be like a child and considered the differences between adults and children. I am currently reading “The Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard and he captures one of the essential differences well on page 76:
Interestingly, “growing up” is largely a matter of learning to hide our spirit behind our face, eyes, and language so that we can evade and manage others to achieve what we want and avoid what we fear. By contrast, a child’s face is a constant epiphany because it doesn’t yet know how to do this….This is also true of adults in moments of great feeling – which is one reason why feeling is both greatly treasured and greatly feared.
Those who have attained considerable spiritual stature are frequently noted for their “childlikeness.” What this really means is that they do not use their face and body to hide their spiritual reality….
I think so much of our cultural understanding of maturity and individualism negatively impacts our ability to become more Christlike. We are told to be hospitable and to share of our gifts. All too often we find this difficult to do. We recently opened our home to another couple and their two children because they had to move out of their new home for health-related reasons. It is interesting to see how hard it is for the adults to adjust and how easy it is for the children. While we, as adults, are intensely private individuals with structured routines, and the introduction of new and different routines and schedules is difficult to accept, our children just love having new friends to interact and play with. I have to wonder, as I see how well my children handle such matters, who really is being childish when it comes to “playing well with others” in new and changed environments.
We are very thankful that we are able to open our home, and are blessed to see how He is teaching us through it! Lord, May we become more like children in our love, innocence, and ability to express our true selves, opening the windows of our souls, our Jesus-transformed souls, to the world!