Scripture reading: Mark 10:13–16

Small Enough to Get In

Unless you turn and become like children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

It’s a kid’s worst nightmare! Wanting desperately to ride the new ride at the amusement park, he arrives at the entrance only to be greeted by a carved wooden statue holding a measuring stick which taunts: “You must be this tall to enter.” Only “big people” are allowed on this ride. The small are excluded.

I picture something similar at the entry gate to the kingdom of God. But rather than excluding those who are not tall enough, the “measuring stick” here is intended to exclude those who are not little enough! “You must be this small to enter.” Only children are permitted inside. “Big people” are not allowed.

No one stated the matter more forcefully than Jesus. “Unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” he said (Matthew 18:3). Jesus is reminding “adults” like you and me of the importance of mastering the art of perpetual childlikeness. Qualities such as trust, wonder, play, and the gift of imagination
are basic entrance requirements for life in the family of God. Those who “outgrow” such traits exclude themselves forever from the kingdom of heaven.

In Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, Anthony Esolen explains how current cultural trends are actually deadening childrens’ imagination today. Using witty satire, he describes ten proven methods that will effectively kill the imagination of an Einstein, Beethoven, Dante, or Michelangelo:

1. Keep your children indoors as much as possible.
2. Never leave children to themselves.
3. Keep children away from machines and machinists.
4. Replace the fairy tale with political clichés and fads.
5. Cast aspersions upon the heroic and patriotic.
6. Cut all heroes down to size.
7. Reduce all talk of love to narcissism and sex.
8. Level distinctions between man and woman.
9. Distract the child with the shallow and unreal.
10. Deny the transcendent.

I wish every parent, grandparent, and school teacher would read this book. Frankly, other than a God-sent revival, I can’t think of a better way to save civilization than to absorb the teachings of this book and apply them in our homes,
schools, and churches.

For children are innocent and love justice, while
most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.
—G. K. Chesterton

point to ponder • What did you love to do when you were six years old? Do something today that you loved to do then.

prayer focus • Paint with a child, take in the burgeoning spring, or dream up your next best-seller. Thank God for the gift of wonder.