October 5, 2003

Mark 10:13-15

O, To Be a Kid Again!

     I was driving down the road the other day and saw three young girls about ten or twelve years old riding their bikes in the rain without a care in the world.  I was jealous.  I wanted to ride my bike in the rain, too, except I don’t have one anymore and I find the rain a little annoying now because I don’t have enough hair to cover the top of my head and I have all that paperwork I haul around with me to be concerned about and I can’t get my cell phone wet either.  So I drove on by with all my little inhibitions intact, dry, safe, all grown up. 

 …Sigh…

      Have you seen the commercial where a couple is sitting on white sand by crystal blue water and there isn’t a sound but waves crashing on the beach and seagulls calling and suddenly the guy’s cell phone rings?  He picks it up and throws it in the ocean.  I like that commercial.

     Why is it that we grow up to take on so much stuff?  We do, of course, have important things to do and equally important responsibilities to meet, but still, there can be so much other stuff.  So many things can crowd our lives, material things, emotional things, obligations we take on beyond our capacity to handle them.  Maybe we have a need to prove how valuable we are by trying to impress the people around us, or maybe just ourselves.  Maybe we’re selfish, even a little greedy.  Whatever the reasons, things do pile up. 

     When was the last time you rode your bike in the rain?  OK…when was the last time you walked in it?

     I think one the endearing qualities Jesus found in children was simply their availability.  Unencumbered by credit card debt, obligatory work-related social functions, keeping up with the Jones’s or complex relationships they were always available to go swimming, hop on grandma’s lap, jump in a puddle, play on the swing, listen to God.

     Apparently, Jesus would like for a grownup’s spirit to be as available as a child’s spirit.  He might not be asking us to spend our afternoons in the playground (although it might not be a bad idea), but just to be available to God. 

     We do have important obligations, essential and worthwhile obligations, but that other stuff…we may need to let it go if it gets in the way of our hearts being available to the Holy Spirit’s beckoning.

     The disciples tried to shoo the children away and it’s understandable that they did this.  After all, the tenth chapter of Mark tells us they were busy traveling and teaching.  They came from Capernaum in the north, traveled south to Judea and across the Jordan, about ninety miles, quite a hike on foot, and the pace was picking up.  Jesus would soon be in Jerusalem for the last time.  The suffering and death he spoke of were near.  Time was running short.  The schedule was intense and in the way, underfoot, were those pesky kids.  Who had time for this? 

     But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  I tell you solemnly, unless you welcome the kingdom of God like a little child, you will never enter it.”  And he held the children in his arms. 

     When time was so very short he had plenty of time for them and they for him, time for letting everything else go, time for welcoming, time for embracing.  Jesus tells us the kingdom of God is like that.

     The Savior is available to us in this Communion bread and cup, this forever gift of God’s forgiveness, available to welcome us, hold us, love us.  Are we as available to the Savior?  Where we go, where our church goes, who we grow up to be, these things hinge on this question.

     We don’t have to yearn to be kids again, for we are even now the children of God.  We need only be available to run and play, to sing and dance, to serve and love as God wills.