Learn from a Child

The Good News for the Day, May 25, 2024

Saturday of the 7^th Week in Ordinary Time (346)

People brought some children to Jesus so that he would touch them, but the friends learning from Jesus tried to keep them away.

When Jesus saw this, He was  upset and told them, “Let the youngsters come to me. Do not get in the way, for the realm of what is right includes persons like these.

I am telling you the truth—whoever does not welcome the realm of what is right like a child will not enter it.” Then he hugged the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them. (Mark 10, 13-16)

Jesus is asking you to learn from children! Not mathematics, history or calculus, but something more spiritual, much more vague, and much, much more significant.

Study children. Study five-year-old or a 13-year-old or even a 16-year-old. Study to understand them and to learn from what you understand. Respect their view of the world.

One hundred and fifty years ago, it was the custom to treat children as little adults – to dress them, to reason with them, to expect a sense of responsibility, to assume, without teaching, that they have learned what it is to be an adult. Fortunately people found out quickly that that is not the way to educate, love, or learn from a child.

The rage of a baby is intense but it does not become desire for revenge. Their sense of greed is very limited to food, shelter, and basic bodily care. Their curiosity and desire to grow is virtually infinite – adapting fairly quickly to new environments and new situations.

The realm of what is right – the kingdom of God, Jesus says is like a child. Both that kingdom and a normal childhood consist of simplicity, a mutual respect, an exchange of gifts, a readiness to respond to others, a sense of fun and play – a spirit of cheerfulness, a desire to learn the rules that make sense even if they don’t like them, and a sense of justice. All of these really exist in both the nonverbal world of a child’s character, and in your own existence in the kingdom of God.

An ordinary child is loved as a child, understood as an incomplete human being, unfettered by schedules imposed by calendars and clocks, and ready to both enjoy life and to learn. Such a child is what you and I want to be at our core – beneath all the stress and responsibilities that burden us as adults. These habits of childhood which you can learn from virtually any ordinary child are exactly the virtues which characterize membership in the divine family – in heaven here on earth.

This Good News is that we have such a God-given teacher in a child. Enjoy their playfulness. Imitate their readiness to change and grow, be respectful and expect to be loved and cared for as part of ordinary living. And then practice that in mutual behavior with both friends and enemies. You will bring others into the community, family, kingdom of happiness that way. You can be a Happy Child in This Family.