“At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:1-3)
One of the things I love about working with small children is that in most cases, their minds have not been corrupted by the ways of the world. Therefore, it is fun to make silly comments to them and watch them try to make sense out of what I just said in their little minds. One such example is when I ask them the riddle of why elephants paint their toenails red. They will usually say they do not know, to which I will respond that they paint their toenails red so they can hide in cherry trees. When I say this, you can see their little minds working until they realize there is no way an elephant can hide in a cherry tree and they they respond by telling me with confidence that elephants can’t hide in cherry trees. When this happens, I respond by asking them if they ever saw an elephant in a cherry tree. When they say no, I respond that that’s why they never saw one, because elephants paint their toenails red!
Obviously we know that elephants can’t hide in cherry trees, but how children respond to this riddle illustrates what Jesus taught in Matthew 18:1-14, that little children are very trusting because they are uncorrupted from the world. Likewise, when they are confused or frightened by the world, they cling closely to their their loving mother or father. Their child-like trust demonstrates to us the kind of trust that we need to have in the Lord. This child-like trust teaches us to listen to what God says in his Word more than what the world says. This child-like trust tells us to flee to the arms of our Heavenly Father when we are confused or frightened by the world. Finally, this child-like trust leads to a deep belief, which Paul describes as one that does not cause us to draw back from the Lord, but to believe to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39). When this happens, we are born again by our faith in Christ as children of God (Galatians 3:26) and we experience the loving closeness of God just like little children experience the loving closeness of his or her mother and father. For this reason, just like Jesus has a special place in His heart for children, we should have a special place in our heart for children that teaches them to love Jesus before they are corrupted to fall in love with the world.
