Become Like Little Children

I have this friend who makes me get why Jesus tells us to become like little children.

And it’s not because she’s a little child herself.

It’s because she teaches me so much about loving others, without condition or agenda. 

One night when I was spending time with this little friend, she was being exceptionally sweet and the hugs she was lavishing on me were reaching all the way to my heart. So, as I pushed her around the neighborhood in the stroller, I thanked her.  I said something along the lines of “thank you for being so sweet to me tonight. It’s making my heart very happy. I have had a few sad nights so it means a lot to me.” And this kid, without missing a beat, asks “Why have you been sad?”

Let me take a second to say that, I’m 26 and often don’t have the guts to ask follow up questions like that because I’m too fearful that I’m not going to be able to handle the answer or I’m not going to know how to respond once I hear the answer, but this 4 year old, without hesitation asks. She isn’t concerned about herself in the conversation or how what I might say might affect her. She simply wants to know why I’m sad.

So I answer. In the most kid-friendly honest way I know how. “Sometimes I believe lies that I know aren’t true, but my body feels like they are true anyway. Sometimes I think my friends think mean things even though it’s not true.” 

And this kid turns in the stroller to look at me and says “ No.

 I am your friend and I don’t think mean things.”

I can’t write that sentence without getting teary. 

 

And in the actual moment, I don’t just get teary. I cry at how sweet her simple answer is and I say “Thanks for being my friend” except I don’t actually get through that sentence because I’m all choked up by this little 4 year old speaking life.

 

And she continues “And if you have a sad night, you can come visit me in the morning because I’m your friend.” And then she stops the stroller, lifts up her hands, and says “hug.” 

 

Who is this kid?! And how can I be more like her?

 

How I want to be someone who doesn’t look away when stuff is hard, but rather TURNS towards it and speaks life right into it.  Someone who turns toward it and isn’t afraid to touch it. Someone who is willing to enter in the hard stuff and not just sit around for the good stuff.

 “Become like little children…”, yeah, this kid makes me get it.

Okay, now fast forward to a couple weeks later and I’m standing at the bottom of the stairs at this kid’s house and she is showing me princess dresses and asking me for my thoughts on which one she should wear. She doesn’t know it but I’ve had a few sleepless nights and been having a battle in my mind that I feel like I’m losing and in the middle of a conversation about “the pink dress or the blue dress”, she stops and says “Are you sad?”

 

Um, what? How did you come up with that question from me saying blue?

And that’s how I respond. “What made you ask me that?”

“Your voice sounded sad.”

“Oh.”

I was too surprised to say anything else. This little heard something in my voice that seemed off so she asked. She didn’t dance around the subject or avoid it, she just asked.

How many times don’t I ask? How many times am I too preoccupied with “pink or blue” to hear the sound in someone else’s voice?  How many people are waiting to be asked and never are? Lord, give me the eyes to see and the ears to hear…

I never answered other than “Oh” but a couple hours later, during rest time, I’m laying on the couch and this little girl sneaks up to me and when I say Hi, she responds with “you doing okay?”

 

….Little girl, I’m doing a whole lot better because of you. 

This kid makes me get why Jesus says to become like little children.

Lord, help me love like a 4 year old.