The Faith of a Child – for Adults

As the official start of spring approaches, here’s a warm-weather image – especially for those of you who have endured much of the winter up to your eyeballs in snow and ice.

Picture a small boy or girl, not more than two years old, standing at the edge of a sun-drenched community pool. Daddy’s in the pool with arms extended, encouraging tiny Jimmy or Jill to dive in, promising to catch the little leaper. A bit wary, the child finally casts caution aside and makes the jump toward the inviting water. As promised, Daddy grabs mini-person and holds on securely.

Why does the child do it? Jumping into water over your head is dangerous when you can’t swim. What if the child slips through the father’s grasp and goes underwater? Or what if Daddy decides not to catch the little one? There’s just one reason the child does it: Childlike faith.

Little Jimmy or Jill might not jump into the arms of a complete stranger. Hopefully they won’t. But they know Daddy. A relationship has been established, built on love and trust. If Daddy asks them to jump, there’s no reason for fear. And they don’t have to stop and calculate the various risks – all they know is Daddy is totally reliable. He keeps his promises. There’s nothing to worry about. So they jump. And most likely, throughout the summer they will jump again, again and again.

On numerous occasions, Jesus talked about the faith of a child. He told His followers, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:16-17).

Another time Jesus used a child for show-and-tell: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-4).

Like a little girl hurling herself off the edge of a pool into a parent’s waiting arms, without gathering statistical evidence to confirm the likelihood of mom or dad successfully catching her, God calls us to exercise similar faith in committing to Him.

That doesn’t mean throwing all reason aside. Faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t require mindless, unquestioning commitment. God isn’t intimidated by our doubts and questions. They’re actually helpful in the process of spiritual growth.

At the same time, faith involves a willingness to proceed in trust when we being asked to venture into the unknown. Just as jumping into a pool amounts to a literal leap of faith for a toddler, many times God asks His spiritual children to take leaps of faith.

The first “leap” is receiving the gift of salvation Christ offers, accepting His death on the cross as the only possible atonement for the forgiveness of our sins. But that’s just one of many occasions when, like the trusting child, we must proceed even when the way seems unclear or uncertain.

That’s been the case several times in my career, changing jobs and moving my family as God directed. Sometimes He calls us to perform acts of charitable generosity that don’t make sense from a financial standpoint. “Put the calculator away,” God says. “Just do what I ask – and trust Me to more than make up the difference.”

There are countless other ways our heavenly Father asks us to follow Him with childlike faith, when “common sense” urges us otherwise. That’s why Proverbs 3:5-6 has become so dear to me over the years. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Many times my “own understanding” raised red flags, cautioning, “You don’t want to do that – that’s silly.” But then God said, “Trust Me. I know exactly what I’m doing.” Thankfully, He’s shown that to be true more times than I could ever remember.

As adults we want to be “sophisticated,” relying on logic and reason. We prefer to walk by sight and not by faith, feeling too “grown up” for spiritual intangibles. But ultimately, that’s what faith is all about. It’s “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Another translation says it’s “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

For the little child at pool’s edge, staring at Daddy’s outreached hands, the leap forward isn’t based on hope-so but confident assurance, never doubting the parent will do as promised. God desires the same childlike trust from us. It’s like He’s saying, “Child, you’ve trusted Me before and I’ve always come through for you. Why would I stop doing that now?”

Better Buckle Up

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a concerted effort to convince everyone to wear seatbelts. Studies have shown people that drive or ride in cars without seatbelts fastened have a much higher risk of serious injury or death in an accident. Some states have even waxed poetic, warning drivers to “Click It or Ticket.”

When I was a kid, no one knew anything about seatbelts. It’s a wonder any of us lived to tell about it. You just got in the front or back seat and your parents instructed you to “sit still!” The danger, in our minds, was discipline from mom or dad, not forward momentum in the event of a sudden stop.

With childlike faith, toddlers
submit to car seat and seatbelts.

Today, however, we’re wiser and most of us “click it.” We’ve heard and accepted the safety message. Engineers have even performed great feats in designing car seats for infants and toddlers to protect them from highway mayhem. Most of the time kids don’t argue about being buckled in, although they usually don’t know where they’re going or why, or how long it will take to get there.

Trustingly they endure the seatbelt restraints and relax in their places, except for the occasional “Are we there yet?” To which the astute mom or dad replies, “No, we’re not there yet. If we were, would we still be in the car?”

We don’t give it much thought, but submitting to car seat and seatbelt without question is an act of faith for young ones. How do they know they’re not being taken to the zoo, to be fed to the lions? Or to a restaurant that serves only chicken livers and Brussels sprouts? With trusting hearts they ride along, staring at the backs of their parents’ heads or observing the passing scenery, awaiting arrival at who knows where – or when.

We’re now in the first week of 2014, and while we don’t feel seatbelts surrounding us as we proceed into the year, we suspect we’re in for quite a ride. We don’t know where we’re going or what things will be like when we get there. All we know for certain is we’re on our way.

One of the advantages of having faith in God is even though we’re as uncertain about the future as anyone else, we have confidence our “tour guide” knows where we’re going and won’t let us get lost. “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

People wary of what lies ahead are sometimes described as “sheepish,” and there couldn’t be a more appropriate term. In Psalm 23, a passage familiar to many of us, we find the metaphor of a shepherd leading his sheep. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters…. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sale. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you (the Lord) are with me.”

Envision a toddler fastened in a child-restraining carrier in the back seat, trusting mom or dad – whoever’s driving – to safely transport her to the destination. She’ll probably even nap along the way, and when the route gets dark or the road gets a little slick, she’s still trusting the proper care will be taken to keep her safe.

How can the child know for sure mom and dad will always provide protection and exercise caution? She can’t, except for the eyes and heart of childlike faith. And that’s exactly what God expects of us. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15).

Children have such a simple, sincere faith; somehow we seem to lose that as adults, insisting the why’s and what’s and wherefore’s be fully explained. God doesn’t demand blind, unreasoning faith as we travel along life’s journey. At the same time, however, it’s like he’s saying, “I can’t explain everything to you. Even if I tried, you wouldn’t understand it. So just trust me.”

And buckle up. We’re in for a crazy ride!

The Faith of a Child

Like Alfred E. Neuman, little Maclane was thinking, "What, me worry?"
Daddy had him firmly by the hand.

Recently we spent time in the Florida panhandle at the beach – at least until torrential rains arrived, ending our idyllic hours in the sand and sending us home to equally rainy Chattanooga. During our time at Seagrove Beach, I enjoyed observing our two-year-old grandson, Maclane, who was also there with his mom and dad.

Despite the crashing of the waves and the tug of the surf with its ebbing and flowing, little Mac was undaunted. He had not a care in the world. Why? Because either his mom or dad – and sometimes both – held him by the hand, protecting him from the current as well as the possibility of losing his balance and falling into the water.

It occurred to me that Mac never seemed worried even once about whether his parents would let go of him as they ventured a bit deeper into the water. Not a single time did his face show any fear that Daddy might release him into the sea when it was well over his head.

Children are born with implicit faith
in the loving, protective grasp of a parent.

Yes, Mac was wearing “floaties” for extra protection, but he had absolute, unwavering faith that Mommy and Daddy were there to protect him and ward off any danger as they played together in the waves.

We’ve all observed similar things at the local swimming pool: A toddler standing at pool’s edge, being urged by Dad or Mom to jump into arms extended to catch them. Children seem to be born with built-in faith, never doubting their parents will feed them, care for them, protect them from the dangers that lurk all around.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus often used children as examples of the faith and trust He expects of His followers. For instance, the Lord said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

A while later, when Jesus’ disciples tried to keep children away from Him, thinking they were a bother, He responded, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:4).

Again referring to the simple faith they exhibited, Jesus commented, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17).

Sadly, many children experience having their faith betrayed by parents in many ways. Some of those parents, out of their own brokenness, have been uncaring to their children, selfish and even cruel. Tragically, faith in human parents is not always rewarded.

But faith in our Heavenly Father, I’ve always seen rewarded. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you,” God promises in Hebrews 13:5. In the Old Testament, the psalmist writes, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).

There are countless other biblical passages that express the same truth – that God is constant and unfailing, always worthy of our faith and trust. As Hebrews 10:23 admonishes, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

As the old children’s hymn declares, “How do I know? The Bible tells me so.”