I love watching my friends be parents. The moments with their families are clear reflections of God’s love – unconditional, ever-present, always on call, treasuring our very existence, and yet, everyday. Infant children rely on their parents for everything. I love watching their delight in discovering the world, or their innocent confusion when something doesn’t fit their newly formed expectations. Everything is new to them. Often discovery elicits wonder. (Sometimes it elicits tears or loud complaints. Don’t tell me you haven’t been there, too.) They try things without reserve because everything is a beginning. They have no expectation that they will already be experts at anything. They don’t even know what expertise is. They simply are themselves.
These are the images that come to my mind when Jesus tells his disciples, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” I know that there are other historical connotations there. I think the aspects of childhood I witnessed this summer are also in play: total reliance on a loving God, delight in discovering something good, willingness to admit I am not an expert at life, and the ability to simply be as I am