A Reason to Believe
The wonderment of childhood is great part faith. Children are open and honest, only learning suspicion and deceit as they become more sophisticated. I know (from the theological stance) that they are just little sinners, but they are new to the craft, uninitiated and inexperienced. I miss those days. As I have learned, I have hurt- myself and others. There are many things I wish I could forget. Funny, how, in the days of youth, we rush to knowledge before its time. Children expect the truth, they believe, and they try. They do all the things naturally that become hard for us as we age.
Jesus said that the faith of a child could open the door of heaven. Only the key of faith will unclasp the lock of eternity. It is precisely because the child’s faith is pure faith- not the “I hope so” of those who have learned faithlessness in our empty world. I have seen children burst into tears when they heard Jesus died, not so much with adults. On the other hand, when the Holy Spirit enters and the wind starts to blow, I have seen the hands of the aged lay hold on pure, child-like faith as the weight of the years and the prospect of eternity made everything so clear. Pure, clean faith.
Now, Jesus didn’t say the child’s faith was a way to be able to go to heaven. He said it’s the only way for a person to go to heaven. Actually, He said that, if you don’t have a child’s faith, you can’t go. Nearly everyone who is saved is saved before age twenty-one and the majority of them before age twelve. Kinda puts a different perspective on the children’s church, doesn’t it? I am so thankful that I had that faith as a child and that I have seen it in children today. When I look for faith, I find it in children. When I want advice and doubt, I get it from adults. I can dish discouragement, too. I’m not a child anymore.
There are reasons to have faith, and they are everywhere. Faith is confidence in something we do not see. In the natural world, there are many unseen forces that we not only believe in, we rely upon. The same is true of spirituality. The spiritual world validates itself from the inside- out. Once you accept it, you see it. Over time, you begin to understand it. These simple precepts confound the learned but are grasped readily by the innocent. Children enter the kingdom of heaven in droves, but their elders stumble in their efforts. Unseen objects of faith are not fables.
I said there are many reasons to have faith, but even these may be seen to fail the tests of agnostic rationality. It takes more than human reasoning to gender faith. The overshadowing presence of God alone will convince an unbeliever of God’s truth. No one receives salvation through debate. The power of the gospel is seen as believers bear the good news in jars of clay. As we are obedient to Christ’s admonition and go, He goes with us and gives the force of heaven to the simple words we speak and direction to our steps. When we make a small effort, it gives God the chance to do what only He can.
Sterl
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