“Childlike Trust” by
Colleen O’Sullivan
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have
hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the
childlike. Yes, Father, such has been
your gracious will. All things have been
handed over to me by my Father. No one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and
anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:25-27)
Piety
Lord, help me to be like a little child looking to You with trust and an
open heart.
Study
What your heart is open to affects what you see and hear. If you have a jaded outlook on life, you will
probably not be able to see Jesus for who he is or to hear anything the Lord
says to you clearly. By the time we’re
adults, we generally have acquired numerous biases. We’ve gained knowledge, facts and figures, in
which some of us put our ultimate trust.
But we don’t
come into the world like that. We are
born totally dependent on those around us for daily sustenance, for comfort, and
love. Infants don’t spend time in their
cribs assessing whether or not they like everything about us; they simply trust
that we have their well-being at heart.
I took care
of my great-nephew when he was an infant until he was old enough to go to
daycare at age one. I loved every minute
of it and, at the same time, was terrified by the trust put in me. Those big, blue eyes looked at me every day with
absolute faith that I would feed him when he was hungry, keep him safe, kiss
away any hurts, and protect him from strangers.
Now he’s
three years old, and I am again taking care of him, three days a week. His daycare has not reopened, and who knows whether
it would be safe to send him there right now even if it had. Those same big, blue eyes still look at me with
the belief that I have his best interests at heart. Now we play in the sandbox, walk to his
grandma’s plot in her community garden, play on his splash pad, and “sell” food
from his food truck. He trusts that I
will hold his hand and guide him safely across the street. He learns new words every day and repeats things
I say, all the while assuming that I wouldn’t lead him astray.
His is a
good life. So far, nothing has happened
to give him cause to doubt or to become cynical. And that’s exactly the sort of childlike
openness and trust Jesus says we need in order to receive what God offers
us. Jesus says it’s no use for his
Father to reveal truth to those of us who consider ourselves already wise and
learned. We would not see it right before
our eyes. We would not listen or believe. Our faces would reveal no wonder or awe.
Action
We grow up and lose our childish ways, while
hopefully retaining our childlike trust in God and our openness to all that the
Lord is doing in our lives and in the world. No matter how old we are, God still
offers us a hand to guide us. Do we reach out and put our hand in God’s?
What does it take on our part to retain that
childlike openness to the Lord? Spend
some time in prayer today thinking of all the ways you are dependent on God as
well as all the times you had no idea what to do and God led you to a place of
safety. Giving up the notion that we are
lords over anything in our lives is a good place to start when it comes to
trust.
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