To Become Like A Child

 I am now 69 and a half years old, and until today I didn't really understand the saying of Jesus in Matthew 18:

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.

After all, reason tells you that becoming again like a child is impossible. You have lived too long, seen too much, and all that you have seen, and maybe done, can not be forgotten. And didn't Jesus also say:

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

But then, that seems to be the point of Anthony J. DeBlasi's article at the American Thinker today entitled Transcendent Truth. In thinking about God and His work in the world, "reason" only takes you so far. The mind of God is so vastly beyond us, that our ony response is to accept that God loves us and what he commands is for our own good.

Truth, in its meaning as ultimate knowledge of reality and human life, does not conform to the restrictions of rational thought. Rational thought (frequently and loosely referred to as “reasoning”) serves best where it operates within a set of unyielding givens. This is not possible where every critical given is open to endless modification, in any search for ultimate Truth. In short, putting what is all-encompassing within an enclosing mental frame is an exercise in futility. Deliberators on ultimate truth waste their time (and ours) when they fail to see that it does not – can not – proceed from the human mind, a reality confirmed by centuries of consistent failure to succeed. Smart as we are, try as we may, the Truth remains beyond the grasp of philosophy, beyond science, beyond politics, beyond opinion and, face it, beyond argument. What is left for mortals, concerning ultimate knowledge of reality and human life, is to concede that it must come from the mind of God. For it is simply not something we can originate or, what is laughable, establish by consensus.

Which leads to the second question, “Why must we search for the Truth, why don’t we have it?” Well, the answer is, we do have it. The Truth is present in us as a reflection from our Source of Being, something that Plato elaborates on in his “Allegory of the Cave” [The Republic] and mystics have sensed throughout history. That reflection – faint in some, stronger in others – is the inspiration for action tending toward a more fulfilling, happier life than otherwise possible. This “bridge” to our Source, sensed intuitively (not rationalized), is manifest in God-centered religion that, when unadulterated by politics, provides the best available guide to a good life.

...snip...

It is just so for anyone who can sense transcendent truth, even if unable to “reach it” in a purely mental way, which is where faith takes over and the need arises for God-oriented doctrine if the means to best guidance is to resonate with our Source of Being. Reaching for certainty, fulfillment, wellbeing ought to lead to an adaptation to life that draws from our Source, universally acknowledge as the Creator, God. Without a serious effort toward that end, there is stumbling from crisis to crisis with misery for the many.

This is extremely sad, considering the fact that the consciousness of the Creator entered the consciousness of humanity in the event we celebrate as Christmas. Via the birth and life of Christ it became abundantly clear to all what the portal is to “the truth, the way, and the life” [John 14:6] – true happiness, in other words. Yet this divine light on human wellbeing continues to be rejected and reviled wherever it conflicts with selfish gain or unbridled ambition to power. The latest result stares us in the face: a world with no moral anchor, beset with endless confusion, finger-pointing, back-stabbing, suffering and bloodshed.

And this is where becoming like children comes in. Children can accept things that defy logic, like bread and wine being flesh and blood when done in remembrance of Him. Logic says that bread is bread, wine is wine. Jesus says it is His body and blood. To accept that this is Truth is to become like children, or at least to begin to approach that state.