It probably went something like this ... "Ladies, ladies! listen! The Teacher hasn't time to bless all of your children. Today He has a lot of teaching to do! Please leave the front here and take your kids with you, they're only a distraction!" WRONG MOVE! "Peter, Andrew, listen ... let the children come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of God. You must become as a child even to enter my Kingdom." Jesus knew something the disciples along with many of us, have forgotten. Children are natural believers! (Mark 10:13-15)
I'll admit I wasn't born a Christian, but I was born a believer. We were all born believers. It's a shame life changes us. We believed, we trusted ... we learned!
O. K. I'll admit I believed in Santa Claus and his slay with reindeer pulling it through the sky. By any measure an aerodynamic challenge, but Christmas Eve I listened. I hoped. I trusted. I was disappointed. I was fooled!
At an early age I heard that at the end of a rainbow there was a pot of gold! Now in Southern California it didn't rain often but on occasion I would see a rainbow and I was off hunting for the pot of gold. Yep I was a believer. I trusted. I returned to my house a simple and poor, wet fool!
As I grew older, little by little my innocent belief was corroded, as was my trust. Who was I to trust? Who was I to believe? What was I to believe and what was I to trust? Caution hit my belief.
My belief and my trust became guarded and rightfully so.
I was a simple and innocent believer no longer. Through my disappointment I learned not to believe everyone and everything.
I was asked to believe in God; a God whom I had never seen. Jesus was invisible too. The Bible was just a dead book. I was asked to believe I was a sinner and that I needed saving. I was told Jesus paid the price for my sins. I was asked to trust in the Lord. Trust in His Word. Believe in this? Trust this word? My struggle was legitimate! I wrestled with this.
This was simply too much for my fragile human belief ... thank you Holy Spirit for helping me through my wall of cynicism to become a true, trusting BELIEVER.
Only God could make me a believer again, and He did.
Now, being born again of the Spirit, I start once more as a simple trusting believer. Please God, let no professing believer cause me to stumble and fall.
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
~ Mark 10:13-15
