Asking like a Child

Br. Pier Giorgio, CFR

In Mt. 18:3 Jesus tells us “Truly, I say to you unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This teaching has always puzzled me, and made me wonder what it really means to be childlike. Certainly, Jesus does not mean to act in childish ways, but rather to have the disposition of a child. One of those dispositions is to ask. Children ask for everything because they recognize that they cannot provide for themselves, so they go straight to those who can, their parents. The same is true for all of us we must go to our Heavenly Father and ask, if not beg, Him for all that we need, trusting and confident that He will provide for us.

Not too long ago I was driving on a very busy road in Manhattan. While sitting in traffic I realized that there was someone blocking the cars ahead of me. It was a homeless man standing in the middle of the road begging for money and food. As I got closer to him I rolled down my window to greet him. When he saw me he ran over to my car and gave me a huge smile and a high-five, and started praising and thanking God. Unfortunately I had nothing to offer him, so after a quick exchange I wished him well and continued on my way. As I drove away I was struck by this man’s childlike disposition and faith, he knew that the only way to get people’s attention and to get what he needed was to stand in the middle of a busy road. This may seem crazy to us, but we need this level of faith and trust in our relationship with the Lord to be like the child who are uninhibited by norms and will throw himself into his parent’s arms when he is in need because he has great confidence that he will not be refused. We can learn from this poor man’s example- we can ‘get in God’s way’ and be confident that He will stop and give us exactly what we need. Let us strive to be like children, confident and trusting in the Father’s love for us, knowing that we can bring all our pains, needs, and desires to Him and that He will graciously receive and hear our prayer.