Thought for the Day - Thursday 20 August

 

Thought for the Day – Thursday 20^th August

‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you this, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he embraced them, laid his hands on them and blessed them.’ (Mark 10: 14-16)

 

Well, even though they sometimes drive you to distraction you cannot deny that spending quality time with a young child is always a profoundly moving experience – and often an exhausting one - as we have found out as we look after our latest grandchild for just one day a week – he just never stops wanting to walk about and see things and explore his world! Children look at the world in such a wonderful way! They have an innocence, an openness, an honesty, a simple trust and along with all these qualities, often an inexhaustible zest for life. Oh! that we could preserve all these qualities for our young folk forever, keep them from the ravages of time, but sadly we cannot for the harsher realities of life will always sweep in at some point as they grow.

 

Yet, it strikes me that while we, by necessity, need to leave behind much of our childishness as we grow, to lose all these child-like qualities just because we grow up would be dreadful. Indeed I think we do so at our peril for however old we are, we still need to be looking at this world that God has created for us with wonder, glimpsing God within it and if we don’t then surely our souls are being starved of nourishment.

 

I think this struck me particularly yesterday when I arrived home in the car from a visit. There in the garden was that huge mushroom that you may remember appeared at this time last year – a huge white ball of fungi just growing there in the front garden which had appeared out of nowhere. Like a child I was full of wonder and delighted to see it there once more and in my wonder I was anxious to get out of the car and go over and explore it even though it looked exactly the same as last year – it was and is just such a marvel!  I don’t know why it appears but it just does! Obviously it is a wonder not just to me because I noticed that when the gardeners came yesterday rather than mow over it, they mowed around it! They must have found it wonderful too!

 

Child-like delight and wonder!

 

That is what Jesus is getting at here!

 

We need to be like children, we need to trust God, even when we do not quite understand what is happening to us; we need to approach life with that same sense of openness and that same hunger to learn and explore; we need to keep marvelling at God’s creation and keep seeking God’s help and guidance as our life unfolds.

 

We need to keep marvelling at things like that big mushroom!

 

This is not us being childish – this is us being child-like and we need to keep sight of the difference! 

 

Prayer

 

Loving Lord,

You know each of us by name and you welcome us as your children, blessing us daily by your grace. Lord, help us to never lose those child-like qualities you have given us as we grow older, help us to look always at your world with curiosity and wonder, to delight in what we find within it and to constantly marvel at your love and care of us. Grow within us trust and faith and a willingness to seek your guidance for our life path. In your name we pray. Amen.