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As a Little Child

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A little boy and his mother went out to eat. When the waitress asked him what he wanted, he glanced at his mother and quickly said, "I want a big hamburger." His mother looked at the waitress and said, "Bring him roast beef." The waitress looked at him and said, "What do you want with your hamburger?" He said "Fries." His mother said, "Give him mashed potatoes." The waitress then said, "What would you like to drink with that hamburger and fries?" He replied, "A big coke." His mom said, "Bring him milk." A few minutes later the waitress showed up with the hamburger, fries, and coke. The boy looked at his mother and said, "She thinks I'm real." Children certainly are real. In fact, sometimes they are real bad.

You say, "Wait a minute. Jesus says we are to come into the Kingdom as little children." He was not talking about performance. A predominant fact about babies is that they are able to do nothing. We have grandbabies in our family. You ask a baby in a crib to get you a Diet Coke and a Snickers and he will just look at you. Babies don't even know what you are saying most of the time. Babies don't achieve, they just eat and let you deal with the consequences.

As they get older, it gets worse. Anyone who thinks children are angels sent from God has never had one. If you don't believe in the depraved nature of children, just put one cookie down between two two-year-olds and watch what happens.

My grandson, Drew, was playing in our backyard. I looked out and he was throwing rocks in the neighbor's yard. I told him not to throw rocks anymore. I went back in the house, looked out, and he was throwing rocks in the neighbors yard again. I said, "Drew, I told you not to throw the rocks." He said, "I know but another man told me that I could throw them." Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Why would Jesus say to come as a child? He wasn't talking about their behavior; He was talking about their faith. Children are willing to believe the unbelievable. I was putting my granddaughter, McKenzie, to bed one night. She told me that she thought Mimi and I ought to have a baby. I admit I had thought about it before. I told Penny that maybe we ought to adopt a baby since I had to get up five times a night anyway. She said that at our age we would forget where we put it. What do you say when your grandchild asks you if you can have a baby?

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One of our daughters had her tubes tied and I wondered if McKenzie had heard us talking about it. I thought about saying, "Do you remember that your aunt had her tubes tied so she wouldn't have any babies? Well, Mimi has tired tubes." That seemed way too complicated so I said Mimi is too old to have a baby. She said, "No, she isn't too old. There was a lady we learned about in Sunday School and she had a baby. I know if she could do it, Mimi could do it." I said, "I know, her name was Sarah wasn't it?" She said, "Do you know her?" I had to laugh and say, "No, but I did hear that she cashed her Social Security check and bought Pampers."

To be honest I can't remember what we finally decided about Sarah and Mimi. What I do remember is, I thought that night about what it's like to come to God with childlike faith. I also wondered if there were things in my life that were dead that God wanted to bring back to life.

I smiled as I thought of Abraham and Sarah walking hand in hand through the baby section of the Mesopotamian Wal-Mart. Can you imagine their buying Geritol, baby formula, and a cane? Maybe today there's a dream that has died in you. Come to God in childlike faith and you may see the birth of something that you had given up on years ago.