To Be A Child

“He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:2-4

It isn’t a return to gullibility. It is a call to innocence. The very act entails a deliberate exercise of the God-given faculty of free will. Doing so also calls one to humility, a fight too lofty against one’s propensity.

People misconstrue God’s ultimate knowledge to equate not really being able to have the choice. If you really think about it, this mindset is an excuse – a choice in itself of actually not having to make the choice. A claim to victimhood does not necessarily make one a legitimate victim (as we can clearly see in current events) and the opposite is true. Perceiving God to be an oppressor does not make Him one.

He doesn’t need to force anyone to believe in Him. His ultimate knowledge does not mean He makes anyone choose Him. Just because He knows your choice, your finite knowledge of the future still led you where you are now, solely through the choices you made.

You heed to traffic signs don’t you? In the spiritual realm, there too are signs.

You choose which way to go and whatever you choose, you cannot pin the blame on someone else. You take the wrong way and you will pay, either monetarily (traffic violation tickets are hard on the wallet) or with your life. That is justice and for justice to be legitimate, it cannot be tied to emotions. In the physical realm, emotions devoid of facts and truth always become a great cloud that prevents justice to be executed.  You break the law willfully, you are subject to the consequence whether you accept it or not.

Christianity is something else. Justice was executed through love through Jesus’ willing resignation (John 10:18) to become the atoning sacrifice for the sins of every human being, including yours and mine. Since Jesus is God incarnate, the momentary garment of human flesh was subject to satisfy God’s sacrificial requirement so there would no longer be a need for the shedding of blood.

To be or not to be a child of God? That’s entirely up to you.