The Faith Of A Child

Little boy: Daddy why is the sky blue?

Father: Because the Earth's atmosphere reflects more of the blue parts of the light spectrum than any of the others.

Little boy: What's a light spectrum?

Father: Well, light travels through the air and if something reflects all of it, we see white. If none of it is reflected we see the color black, and all the colors we see are when just a piece of the light is reflected and the rest is absorbed by whatever the light hit or passed through.

Little Boy: But why does the light reflect differently from different things, Daddy?

Father: So that we can identify things and understand them better based on how they reflect differently, like how you know which car is mine and which car is your mom's because they're different colors. And also so that you can see colors. God wanted you to be able to see the beauty of colors in His creation so He created light to have the properties that it does.

Little boy: But why? If we never saw colors we wouldn't miss them so why did God want us to see them?

Father chuckling: That's a good question, son. God wanted us to see and experience beauty in His creation so that we would understand that God is beautiful and be prepared to recognize Him when we see Him some day.

Little Boy: But why doesn't God just let us see Him now?

Father: Son, God is so very beautiful that if we were to see Him before we're ready we'd just be so in entranced by His beauty we couldn't help but to love Him and not be able to think about or do anything else but stand there looking at Him and loving Him.

Little boy: But doesn't God want us to love Him?

Father: Yes. He wants that very much, but He wants us to love him for who He is and not just what He looks like or what He can do. He wants us to get to know Him personally. Who's the most beautiful woman in the world?

Little boy: Mommy!

Father: That's right. But why do you love Mommy?

Little boy: Because she loves me and holds me and pats my back when I get scared and takes care of me when I'm sick and she smiles at me and she teaches me things and she smells like cookies!

Father chuckling: Ok so you see how even though you know she's beautiful you love her for things other than how she looks. That's the way it's supposed to be. We should care about people because of who they are, not because of how they look. And God wants us to feel the same about Him, but He's so very beautiful that we would forget everything else if we saw Him. So He makes Himself invisible to human eyes and then lets us see things that tell us about how wonderful He is. Like sunsets.

Little boy: And puppies!

Father: Yes, and puppies.

Little boy: So why is the sky a different color at sunset?

Often those of us who have survived the juvenile stage of humanity think of children as foolish and gullible. We tell children who have not yet learned that people lie little white lies like "If you're good, Santa will bring you a present," or "If you put that tooth under your pillow, the Tooth Fairy will come take it and leave you money." Then we tell ourselves when we see the hurt and disillusion in their eyes at finally learning the truth that it's all part of growing up, and it's a lesson we all had to learn, mainly that everyone lies and you can't trust anyone, not even Mom and Dad. Personally, I feel we should be trying to teach our children exactly the opposite and telling them the truth from the start, but that's another topic.

The reason that I brought that up, is that I believe when we hear things like in order to obtain the kingdom of heaven we have to receive it as a child we say "Yes, we must have the faith of a child," but think, "I'm not going to be a gullible fool believing just anything, I need to understand." Then we, or at least I, have said to myself, if I don't understand it, I won't believe it.

But seriously, if having the faith of a child really a sign of ignorance and gullibility? It's a rare child that is still satisfied with the response of "Because I'm the parent and I said so, that's why," by the time they're five. The natural response of most children at that point is, "But why?" This is true, I believe, even when they only say it in their heads and frown in frustration at the answer to their question. Children are curious, and they want to know and understand. They watch their parents and mimic them. Little boys walk around with plastic hammers, "Fixing" things like their father's do. They watch. They parrot words and phrases, sometimes to the embarrassment of their parents. They ask questions that always lead to more questions. It's as though their every thought and activity can be traced back to an attempt to better understand their parents and the world they live in. They say with their actions, teach me you ways, my parents, so that I can be like you.

And yes, children trust their parents with a blind, sometimes even gullible, faith until they are given reason not to. Every parent will eventually give their child a reason to doubt. We're all human and fall short of perfection after all. And some parents will do so much damage that their child will learn not to trust anyone or anything, not even God. And I could express my feelings about those parents, but that is also another subject. My point is that children do indeed, at least at first, trust and believe their parents. So they ask questions. And when they hear something that sounds wrong, they run to those same parents for verification.

Little boy: Daddy, Tommy says that clouds are the left over gas from airplanes. Is that true? And Sally says an ant can carry a whole hundred times something heavier than itself? Is that true?

Father: Airplanes leave a trail that fades, but that's not what causes clouds. Remember the story of Jesus going up into the clouds? There weren't any airplanes then, so airplanes can't be the reason for clouds. And yes, ants are very strong and can carry....

Mothers and fathers and teachers and others faithfully answering questions with the truth while also teaching the young how to think for themselves is supposed to be a growing up. And it's the center, in my opinion, of the concept of having the faith of a child. It has nothing to do with some idea of non-questioning obedience. It's a rare child who unquestioningly obeys anything or anyone for very long.

Having the faith of a child says to God, I want to know you, I want to understand you, and I want to be like you in our actions and in our questions. It says God, why? Then ok, but if that's the answer to that, then why this? And why that? Because I want to know you. Teach me Your way that I may walk in truth. As a child understanding that I don't understand I will seek You and the answers believing that You were telling the truth when You said, "Seek and you will find."

I will be impatient and get frustrated when I am simply too immature to understand the answer yet. I will not understand when You can't give me the answer yet because I am still too young. But I will learn from what You do tell me, even when it's not what Tommy told me, and I will keep asking questions, and I will take my questions straight to You, and I will keep striving to know You God, and through that, we will have relationship, and I will grow spiritually until one day I can stand in Your presence and see past Your blinding beauty to who You are and I can understand as I am understood. That is having the faith of a child. And that is the attitude that will keep me seeking Him. That is the attitude that will cause me always remember that there is a power greater and higher than I who can not only keep me clean and sober, but teach and show me a better way to live than anything my limited mind could conceive of on its own.