Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven

Matthew 19:14

While some, perhaps many, would be offended if I were to tell them that they are childlike, I would in fact be giving one of the very highest compliments I can give. I would probably add a little bit more to make the most likely interpretation positive, saying something like “in the best sense of the word, you possess something I strive for — authentic childlikeness”.

For the power of true childlikeness is immense.

Children live in hope, connected to the infinity all around us, consciously experiencing “Him in whom we live and move and have our being”.

So powerful, even irrepressible, yet so vulnerable and fragile.

The music that could be, so rarely is, and even when it is, is often muted or twisted, the casualty of the war between the world and the kingdom of heaven.

And yet, while children, abandoned and neglected, can grow into twisted, damaged traumatized creatures, frequently traumatizing new generations of children, those same children, guided away from the selfish fear permeating the world and towards a trusting, open generosity, show that a pure heart produces beauty and kindness begetting more beauty and kindness, opening to view an immense, inexhaustible hope.

Surrendering to this hope, to this ability to see and feel and hear, we transcend and begin to heal, returning to the place where we began.

We see again with the eyes of a little child. We lay down the burdens we thought we had to carry. We stop trying to control everything. We begin to live by faith.

What our minds could not comprehend, we now simply experience.

Letting go, we find life and peace and love and joy. And in this transformed place, we also begin to understand, to find wisdom, to know as we are known.

Letting go, we remember the place we began, we become children, again

Letting go, we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.