Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. "

Matthew 18:2-4

I've heard many things about this passage. I've heard some say that a childlike faith never questions. That's ridiculous. I have three children and they never stop questioning. "Why?" "What's that?" "How does this work?"

But I want to share something I've observed about myself in my own Bible study. The more I study my Bible the more I realize that when I was a child, I was right. In other words, I think when I was six years old, I was closer to Biblical doctrine than when I was in Bible Doctrines class in college trying to proof text my way through someone else's extra-biblical presuppositions.

When I was six (and no significance to that age, just an arbitrary pick), I might have been in an independent fundamental Baptist church, but I was pretty much a midget Calvinist. At six, I knew God was in control. I believed that everything happened for a reason and that God was the primary cause behind that reason. I remember as a kid, regularly praying and thanking God that I had good parents, was born in America, that my dad had a job, etc. When my dad lost his job, I prayed, genuinely believing that God had the power and would intervene and get my dad a new job. God was my provider.

When I wanted to see my uncle get saved, I prayed. I didn't pray that God would arrange things so that my uncle might choose to accept Him. I prayed that God would change my uncle's heart, and I fully believed that God would intervene and do just that. I hadn't heard of free will, or if I had, I hadn't paid any attention to it, and didn't have any such notion cluttering my thoughts on God.

I have to admit that even when a new toy came out that I wanted, I went to God in prayer for it.
You can argue about praying and "spending on your passions" from James, but I've observed little children getting a lot of yes's. Yesterday our son wanted to get home quickly and started praying for Jesus to turn the traffic lights green. We were about to correct him when the the lights turned green. Every light we came to on the way home was green, changing as we approached it. No, I don't think God is there to do "magic" for you, but I knew as a child that God was very real, because I had prayed and gotten answers. My son has the same unshakable faith. I think it might be something God does in young hearts as their growing and developing. As they get older and more mature, they'll understand better how to pray.

Theology was simple at six. Read your Bible and pray. And prayer wasn't by wrote. I was just a kid talking to God. I actually believed He wanted to talk to me and He wanted me to talk to Him. I believed He really wanted to hear what I was thinking about or worried about or just wondering about. I would ask Him a question and many times just sit there wondering if I might hear Him say something back.

It didn't matter to me that Elijah had lived almost three thousand years ago. I figured I had the same relationship with God and expected to talk and interact with God in the same way.

I wasn't afraid to do wrong because I was afraid of judgment. I didn't want to do wrong because Jesus was my friend and I wouldn't want to do wrong by any of my friends.

The more I study my Bible the more I realize we could learn a lot from a six year old.