the faith of infancy
As I sit here gazing at our sweet baby's face, it's as if I've never seen or understood a baby's helpless state before; I find myself having a "lightbulb" moment, where Matthew 18:3 hits me in a brand new way. Our precious son, completely reliant on us as his caretakers: the two people God chose, enabled and entrusted to give life to this little one. Whoa, dude. That's a big responsibility.
And yet, my heart rejoices as Mary's did in Luke chapter 1, "magnifying" the Lord, because no, I could not have done anything this beautiful apart from the Lord, the Creator. I rejoice in Zion's life. He's such a blessing to GET to take care of!! The Lord has indeed done beautiful things for us, and HOLY is his name!
And then, to think that God willingly gave up his firstborn - his one and only Son for us. It seems unfair. Probably because it is. Yet, Jesus went willingly into the humble, helpless human form as he became a baby. But, that's a whole post for another time.
This afternoon is about childlike faith.
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"At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
~ Matthew 18:1-4
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Jesus, in human form. An infant:
Unable to feed himself.
Unable to clothe himself.
Unable to comfort himself.
Unable to wash himself.
Unable to communicate aside from cries and coos.
Ultimately, he is unable to help himself at all;
He is totally dependent on his mom and dad for wellbeing and survival.
And here's the catch: We're called to have childlike faith.
Does that mean we're called to fully depend on our Father in heaven for OUR wellbeing and survival? Why, yes. Yes, it does. It means exactly that.
Full dependence. Let that sink in. Now, stop "adulting" for a moment and take a step back. As you've grown, you've left your infant-like ways. You've grown to be independent (hopefully...). While growing up and becoming independent IS a good thing (don't get me wrong here, we're not supposed to just be babies forever, that's not at all what I'm saying), we have to re-learn how to be dependent on God, as we were so easily and naturally dependent on our parents in our infancy.
We were all that helpless - and that's remarkable, because somebody took care of us, 24/7.
Here's how we can look to Jesus in full dependence:
- Jesus is the bread of life. He is our source of nourishment. Without him, we're not fed. We're hungry, no matter what we fill our stomachs with (insert crying baby noises).
- Jesus says he clothes us in his righteousness (Isaiah 61:10, Job 29:14). We are to rely on HIM for our clothing. God even started by clothing Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:21). Their attempt to clothe themselves was inadequate. The clothing they needed required sacrifice.
- Jesus is our comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Try as we might, all methods of earthly comfort are either a temporary fix or they simply leave us longing for more: more time, more pampering, more coffee, etc.
- Jesus washes us by his blood (Revelation 1:5).
- Jesus communicates with us by his Word, and when we're unable to communicate, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us (Romans 8:26-27).
That's good stuff. I'm basically telling you to be a baby today. Take that how you want to, but don't miss the magnitude of how beautiful it really is that we don't have to rely on ourselves. The faith of infancy is remarkable. Let's trust Christ with a faith that strong - when we cry, He is there for us. When we smile, He is there to be joyful with us. When we coo, he's there to teach us words - HIS words.
What joy!!
And now, to go change Zion's diaper, because he can't do that himself yet.
#spreadtheword
#beababy
