"Kids Will Be Kids"

Christmas is a time for children! The ages of those “children” are certainly varied though, aren’t they? I have often been accused of acting like a “kid”. I think that can be a good thing some of the time, especially when we are acting out of the simple faith of a child. This is the impact of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven.

“About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Which of us is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" Jesus called a small child over to him and put the child among them. Then he said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:1-4 NLV).

Think about it. Kids can get fun out of the rain. “Adults” do not like rain. We get wet, and we do not like to get wet. It is dangerous to get wet. We might get pneumonia and die. If it rains, we must carry an umbrella, but if we carry an umbrella, we might lose it, and that is even worse than getting wet. But little boys and girls LIKE to get wet. They do not need an umbrella and do not want a raincoat. They love to go out in the rain and get their feet wet. They love to wade. They even love a mud puddle - after all, it has RAIN in it. They do not mind the mud. They can make mud pies. They do not have to be bothered with a stove; they do not have to worry about burning the crust; they do not have to worry about ingredients. After all, you do not EAT mud pies. The fun is just in making them. But grown-ups do not like mud. We think it is a nuisance. It ruins our shoes. We see no fun in a mud puddle at all, but a little kid does.

Kids collect butterflies and seashells and strange colored pebbles and baseball cards. Grown-ups collect stocks and bonds and interest on their savings and receipts to back up our income tax deductions. Kids clip pretty pictures out of magazines and paste them in scrapbooks. Grown-ups clip coupons in an office at the bank. Lots of old folks have no other sport than that. Scraps of paper with numbers on them are not nearly so appealing or interesting or beautiful as the things our youngsters play with. Our children can have fun with the simplest things.

Can we old fogies recover any of that? I think we can. Joan Davis wrote the following little note: "I want to go back to the time when…

 decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
 mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming,"do over!"
 "race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
 money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly"
 being old referred to anyone over 20.
 the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
 having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot.
 taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
 ice cream was considered a basic food group.

There is a special humility in children. It rises out of their faith. That’s the kind of character Jesus wants all of us to have if we are to be truly great in His kingdom. Let’s all be kids this Christmas!