Of A Child Like Faith....

As I come to my last week in pediatric clinical, I am almost awe struck. You see this clinical has not only opened my eyes to what I want to do for my career, it has also opened my eyes to the wonder the is a child's mind. 

You see a child is blessed with not only a giant imagination but also they are open in the fact that they have no boundaries. There kids aren't limited by the norm in life, they are so filled with curiosity that they know no limits. How many nurses can have an interaction with a patient in which the patient states that the IV pump is angry (she said this because is was beeping stating that the fluids had gone in). When asked why it was angry she stated that it wanted to be a toaster, not a machine in a hospital. This is one of the many times that I or others have had to look at the world through a child's eyes. But it made me start asking, what if we never grew out of looking at the world like that of a child? 

Children have no limits. They are constantly learning and taking new things in, and that spreads to their relationship with Christ. People think that you can't learn much from Children when trying to continue to grow in faith but I see the opposite. I see a world in which you can learn more from children then adults sometimes. 

Kids don't judge others, they are more then willing to help someone (how many times have you received goldfish from a child all because you asked nicely), they rarely know a stranger. Children obey what the parents say, yes occasionally there are some disagreements but for the most part the child wants to please the parents. They are the perfect "adult" in someways, all because they don't feel like the world owes them something. 

“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15)

We are told to be like child to God, to have a child like faith in order to get to heaven. To me that doesn't mean we have to be oblivious to the world like children sometimes are, but we do have to have the love and curiosity that kids live with every day. We have to believe in God and Jesus the way children thrive on the believe of Santa or the Tooth Fairy, we have to fight tooth and nail to keep those believes alive even when older kids tell us it isn't real. We have to see the world in a different way, we have to see the IV pump as wanting to be a toaster. 

There was a recent Nooma video by Rob Bell that I had watched. It talked about how Rob went for a walk with his son when a sudden rain storm hit, the child began to scream because all he knew at the time was the storm, all he heard was the storm and the rain hitting his head. The thing was he was never alone, Rob was there the entire time, and he was constantly there protecting his son from the storm. Isn't that us? How many times are we that infant, confused and scared about what is going on around us and forgetting that we aren't alone. But sometimes that is part of having a child's faith, sometimes we just have to know and believe that our Father will not leave us in the storm, won't abandon us in a time of need. 

An even better example of a child's faith comes in the form of summer swimming. As a child, do you ever remember standing on the side of a pool staring at your Mom or Dad, who are in the middle of the pool telling you to jump. They keep telling you that if you jump they will catch you. Well as a child did you ever remember that jump being one that was life or death. You had to trust that your parent would catch you. You finally jump and sure enough they catch you.....not only did they catch you but you decided that it was fun so you get out of the pool and do it again and again. Isn't that the same as trusting God, letting God catch you as you jump into the pool of life. He won't let you drown, if anything we will help you see more to life then you could ever see sitting by the side of the pool. 

So I dare you, jump into the pool. I dare you to live like a child in a would of adults. Have the faith of a child and love what occurs when you start liking like a child and having child-like faith. Live by the words "of a child-like faith and of an honest praise of my unashamed love!"