What does God want us to know about kids?

children are born knowing God is there

I use the word ‘kids’ instead of ‘children’ because I have an affinity towards them. As a teacher, and a teacher of littler ones (k-4) I’ve spent more than half my life with them. They were NEVER boring, sometimes irritating, generally quite funny and fun, but ALWAYS life-giving to me as a person. They brought energy, new ways of viewing the world, and pure innocence into my life.

So, why did God create the whole idea of starting people or any creature as a baby and becoming ‘grown-up’? That’s assuming that you, the reader, believe that God created living things. He could have created us, including all living things, in their final adult stage. I believe He created the world, the universe, and all that lives in and around it. So if He could do that, my guess, he could have created creatures, human and otherwise, fully grown. I’m just sayin’.

But He didn’t. So why? Why children? Why little puppies, and tiny elephants, and such? Why saplings and brand new tiny tomato plants? Even caterpillars who go through the amazing metamorphic transformation, start out very, very tiny.

I’m sure theologians or people who are much wiser in the Word than I would have some definitive reasons, but for me, I think the answers are not too complex, but nevertheless profound.

Is it so every once in a while when we see a really cute baby animal or tiny infant we can say, “Awww” and “Oh how sweet”?

I think the Lord has bigger goals in mind for His people.

After giving this some thought, I am going to be bold and suggest that God thought of these when he chose to begin with children:

~ We need to learn to nurture. Little children require nurturing. Maybe to keep us from being too self-centered and indulging our own selfish desires.

~ We need to view, and observe, and live newness that hasn’t been tainted by experience. To remind us of His power and His pure joy in His creatures. Unadulterated joy is most often seen in children and other small creatures. When was the last time you watched a baby for the first time enjoying running water, or a baby kitten playing with its tail?

~ We need to value learning, and the whole concept of growth as a never-ending continuum. That it is a blessing rather than a drudgery. Watch a child discover a fact or truth or reality for the first time…like round things don’t fit into square places, or that water isn’t a solid, or there is such a thing as gravity. It doesn’t take them very long to add that knowledge to their eager little minds. Sponges, yes, they are. So… grown up people… what happened to being a sponge?

~ We need to see God’s world through a child’s eyes. They stop and touch, and smell, and listen. They don’t assume and take for granted any of God’s good blessings.

~ And lastly (for now), we need to accept that our God values simple, unquestioning, confident faith. If a child has learned to love and trust a parent or another adult in their life, he/she KNOWS you are there.

But amazingly without seeing God, they expect Him to be there too.

“It requires effort to disbelieve; it requires no effort to believe. The interesting thing is that everyone in the world, without exception, starts out believing God exists. It is only when they are carefully trained to disbelieve that any come to the place of declaring God does not exist. Light from God is streaming in on every side and all we need to do is open our eyes to see it and know that God is there. That is why children have no problem with this. The concept of God ought to be one of the most difficult ideas for children to grasp, since God cannot be seen. But the amazing thing is, children have no difficulty at all in believing that God exists.” Dr. Ray Stedman, sermon “The Plight of the Overprivileged”

The Telegraph Children are born believers.

Newsweek What Do Children Understand About God?