After playing ‘cars’ then playing ‘dinosaurs,’ Wilkes pulled out his medical toys. He checked my heartbeat, took my blood pressure, tapped my knee, and stuck something in my ear. Next, he was the sick patient and I was the doctor. As I examined him, I thought I would bring Jesus into the game: “Jesus, will You come and heal Wilkes? Please take care of him,” I prayed.
I noticed as I started this ‘pretend’ prayer that the almost-three-year-old straightened up in his sitting position on the floor and started looking around. After five or six seconds, Wilkes looked at me and said, “He’s not coming.” But before I could figure out a sensible reply, he followed, “It’s OK; Jesus is in my heart.”
The next time I was at Taylor and Emma’s home, Wilkes talked about Jesus again. “He’s my best Friend,” he reported. Taylor tells me such conversations are common at their house and this makes me smile. I wonder sometimes if God would like Wilkes to have faith like His grandfather… or would He want Opa to have faith like Wilkes?
Some might want to discuss matters of ‘understanding’ or the ‘age of accountability’ or several other rational arguments against elevating the faith of a preschooler, but it would be good for us to try to understand why Jesus used a child to teach about His kingdom.
“He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My Name welcomes Me.’” (Matthew 18:2-5)
I’m sure I don’t grasp everything Jesus means, but I do know we can learn a lot from little ones. I think God would love all His children to look expectantly for Him to show up when we call His Name. And Jesus wants us to believe beyond a shadow of doubt that He lives in our hearts. And wouldn’t it be great if all disciples spoke of Jesus as a ‘Best Friend’?
“What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear;
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” – George Scriven
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master‘s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My Name.” John 15:15-16
“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:16-17