One of my favorite quotes in the Bible is from Matthew 15. Jesus tells us, "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, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Whenever I am on retreat with the younger students, I see what blessings they truly are and I see just how much we can learn from them. For instance, they don't allow the troubles of their world to hold them down, and they bring a joyful, light-hearted persona to life that can be lost as we get older.
Oftentimes ego and social pressures can mold us in a way that keeps us from the humility that Jesus talks about. We grow to believe that we know "what is best" and oftentimes, personalities will collide into great argument. We can also grow to believe that all of the accomplishments in our life were our own doing. It is easy to forget that we "can do nothing" without God.
The practice of humility requires the recognition that we are just as dependent on God as children are with their parents. Humility requires that we are open, honest, and seek truth without fearing various pressures, rejection, and being "made small." It requires that we do not try to be something we are not.
Children do not pretend to have all the answers and are not afraid of being wrong. They want to participate and be involved without the fears that we develop as we get older. They enjoy expressing themselves in their own unique way with little concern about how others perceive them.
Jesus asks us to learn to be like children again because it is only through this path that we are able to live an honest life looking to God for all our needs and imitating Him like a child imitates his parents.
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