What Does it Mean to Have "Childlike Faith"?

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” This beautiful and often repeated teaching from Matthew’s gospel is one that I think we too often overlook, assuming its self-explanatory nature through the image of a child. This period of quarantine, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this exact image and realized that I myself had misjudged the simplicity of Christ’s instruction to be childlike! So the question is, what is it about a child that we must yearn to mirror in our own lives? Bringing this question to prayer, the Lord had a lot to say in response:)

A child’s emotions are simple and pure. Their laughter is genuine, their smiles are of joy and their mouths speak only that which they truly feel. Our adult emotions however are complex and preformed. We laugh, but ours can be malicious or with a specific goal, our smiles can hide pain, and our mouths speak lies and often, spew hate into the world that God so lovingly created.

Secondly, a child’s bond with their mother and father is based on pure necessity. The child needs their parent to survive and trusts without a doubt that they will be provided for. An infant knows that they need their mother’s milk, a toddler knows they will find a warm spot in their parents’ bed after a nightmare. Their arms reach up to their mother and father with love, and they do not doubt that they will be lifted up and caressed with all the goodness and love their parents can provide.

Our Father in heaven asks for this trust of us. He, like a mother with her child, provides for us the bread of life; the nourishment we need to survive, yet, how often do we reject His offer? When our lives become like nightmares, God our Father has a place for us in his Holy Mother Church, yet we turn away, falling into the trap of believing that we can do everything on our own. We do not reach up with trusting arms to let our Father in Heaven carry us through the rough terrain, rather we look down to earthly pleasures as if they can satisfy our needs.

Like a child, as we all once were children, we still need LOVE. We need nourishment, comfort and guidance each and every day! The joy, safety and unconditional love that every human heart longs for and is destined for can only be found in His loving arms. All God asks is that we reach up our arms to Him, and trust that He will provide for our every need.