Receive Like A Child

Reflect:

When we listen to children pray, we find their prayers so cute and innocent that at times we shake our heads in great fondness, “you don’t understand what you’re asking.” But if we give them gifts, they still possess the same cuteness and innocence when they thank us for them. We think we know better about asking, but surely children can teach us a great deal about receiving.

In today’s passage, Mark 10:15 reminds us that we cannot enter the kingdom of God if we do not receive it “like a child.” Receiving a gift like a child is receiving with humility, innocence, and gratefulness. With humility, we accept the fact that there is nothing we can do to earn the kingdom of God. It is only given and we can only receive it. Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” With innocence, we do not doubt the intention of the Giver. Instead, we trust that His intention is pure, deliberate, and willing. As Luke 12:32 puts it, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  And with gratefulness, we know that even if we do not deserve to receive this gift, it’s been granted to us still. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 6:23, remember?

It is already God’s good pleasure to give us His kingdom, and by His sovereign will, all that’s left to do is receive this wonderful gift with the same cuteness and innocence that we so marvel at in a child.

Respond:

Today, receive like a child all God has for you in Christ, and share to others that the kingdom of God is also available to them. It cannot be earned or demanded, but only to  be received.