FAITH—A Child’s Superpower

FAITH—A CHILD’S SUPERPOWER

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and set him before them, and said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you repent [that is, change your inner self—your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and become like children [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives and welcomes one child like this in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin [by leading him away from My teaching], it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone [as large as one turned by a donkey] hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 18:1-6 

I remember a few years ago when Tim Keller, legendary New York City pastor and teacher was “live-tweeting”.  Live Tweeting is a way of asking famous people questions in real time on Twitter.    I asked Tim what his favorite movie was, and he said,  “Two movies: The Iron Giant and Babette’s Feast.”  I knew The Iron Giant was one of mine, up there with Superman the Movie and Star Wars.  I remember thinking “Tim Keller is so cool!”  And then it hit me.  Even though Keller is a famous and gifted preacher/teacher and a deep thinker he has never lost his sense of childlike wonder.  The Iron Giant is a heartwarming film by writer/director Brad Bird.  In the film the main character Hogarth Hughes meets a metal eating giant from another planet.  The Iron Giant makes the choice that we all make to be good and to be a hero instead of a weapon from another planet.  The film explores our choices, our souls and eternity and even shows us what Jesus did for us in his ultimate sacrifice and resurrection.

I think that we need to listen to what Jesus says—that we need to start over and go back to being people that see things like children do.  The simple things.  Jesus told an old religious leader that he needed to go back and start life all over again and begin as a new born baby if he wanted to even see the Kingdom of God.  In other words to see the Good News about Jesus in a movie like The Iron Giant you cannot look at the movie through the jaded eyes of a hardened adult—you need to look at it through the eyes of a child.  

The child’s superpower is faith.  It is belief.  It is wonder.  When I was a younger man I had a legit Superman outfit.  I fit into it back then.  My three daughters at the time were around 7, 5 and 3 years old.  When there was a fundraiser in town or something for kids at the church I would wear the outfit and Superman would make an appearance.  My youngest daughter at the time, Natalie, thought I was Superman.  One Saturday morning when Natalie and I were watching Superman the Animated Series, there was a scene in which Superman was being beaten up by Brainiac’s nasty robots.  All of the sudden Natalie started crying.  I put my arm around her and said, “Honey, what’s wrong?”  And she cried out, “Daddy are you okay?  They’re hurting you!”  The poor little girl thought she was watching an historical document about her daddy in action, saving the world from the ruthless genius of Brainiac.  

There is a saying that the Kingdom of heaven is something that has to be believed to be seen.  When you tell little children that God made then world and that He made them and that Jesus loves them, they just simply believe it.  It is not a hard thing for them to see a rainbow and believe that God painted that beautiful arc in the sky.  Children intuitively look up and ask for help.   Jesus tells us that their natural inclination towards faith and letting God be their hero and rescuer is what adults are missing.  

I know that life is hard.  Our family almost lost two baby girls, we have battled serious depression, Graves’ disease, divorce and the hard realities of ministry and personal attack.  When the doctor told Sandra and I that our fourth baby, a surprise little girl, was dying from heart failure in utero we were obviously devastated.  Sandra was six months along with the baby.  With my friends from the church gathered around us for prayer, I remember looking outside the hospital window and seeing the sun reflect brightly off of a metal roof and thinking “God, you power the sun and it never goes out—you have all the power in the universe—if You are willing You can save our baby’s life.”  All I needed at that moment was the childlike faith to believe that a God who keeps the sun burning could keep our little one alive.  And by His grace He did and that little one with heart failure is 20 years old this spring.

The older you get as a person the more evident it is that life is hard.  Life this side of heaven is a grind.  But if you refuse to let your heart become hard and you keep that upward glance towards heaven you can be one of those people who never loses faith.  Another thing to remember is that Jesus warned us against becoming people who would rob the joy of childhood from children.  He said to never steer a child away from His love and to never lead them away from His teaching.  If you are going to be an old curmudgeon then be an old curmudgeon—but leave the kids and their sense of faith and wonder alone.  Don’t be the one who sees a child’s fascination with the rainbow and turns the beauty of it into a merely scientific explanation of light refracting through water droplets.  Let them see the wonder of it.  Let them marvel that God is a Creator who paints beautiful pictures in the sky every day through clouds and rainbows and sunsets.  That He is the one who puts a smile on dolphins and made clown fish and invented the cocoa bean so we could have chocolate.  

Jesus is willing to be the Saviour and hero of the whole world.   He came down here to live life as a baby, a child, a teen and a man to show us that he knows that life down here is harsh.  But He never let this world suck the joy and the love out of Him.  He would stop and talk to kids.  No good Rabbi would take the time to stoop down and bother with kids.  A man of His stature would have servants and be a big deal and would only notice the men of the culture.  The followers of Jesus tried to shoo the kids away.  That upset Him.  Jesus said, “let the kids come to me.  They get me.  They get God.  They get the Kingdom.  In fact, you better smarten up and become like them if you want in on this awesomeness.”  

A little person is not too proud to ask for help.  Jesus said, “become like children—trusting, humble, and forgiving—” and “whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom.”  Dallas Willard talked about how some of the greatest men he knew were the most childlike.  Great men are  humble.  They talk to God their Father about everything.  They don’t mind asking for help for the smallest details of their life.  They look up all the time.  He qualified that the goal is to be childlike and not childish.  There is a big difference.  

CS Lewis said that he had seen ancient wisdom in the eyes of a child and childlike glee in the eyes of an old, old man.  That is the ticket.  To see that God is everywhere.  That He loves us with an everlasting love.  That God the Father sent Jesus to be our Hero of heroes and that He gave His life to save ours.  That He showed us how to live. That we need to keep our eyes fixed on Him.  

Lord, give us the faith of a child.