LIKE a child

    This is a special week in the life of the church in which I serve, as this is our Vacation Bible School (VBS) week.  All this week about 100 kids and almost half as many adults have been here each evening to celebrate life, learn about Jesus, and share in fun, snacks, and fellowship.  It is one of my favorite weeks of the year, because at VBS there is always great joy shared and received.

    I love seeing the expressions of joy on the faces of the children and love hearing them excitedly tell of God’s love, not just for others, but for THEM.  I love the songs that are sung and the stories that are told, the creativity of the staff, and the transformation of the church into a sacred space that looks very different than it normally does.  I love all of these things, but I think what I love most is to see how we adults respond and grow through the experience.
    It is amazing to catch a glimpse of Christ’s light twinkling in the eyes of the adults who help out. Part of their joy comes from the stirring of memories of their own VBS experiences as children, and part of it is experiencing the joy of the faith all over again.  It is awesome to see them singing and doing the motions with the music, then laughing and sharing what a blast they are having.  It is a blessing to see children holding their hands through the halls of the church, and I especially love to see the occasional adult male weighed down by a child or two climbing all over them.  Indeed, VBS is a blessing, not just for the children but for God’s adult children as well.

    Yesterday I led the devotion for our staff meeting, and I found myself drawn to Frederick Buechner’s book Whistling in the Dark, which gives brief snippets of commentary on specific topics.  As I leafed through the pages I came across a statement about “childhood,” and nestled in the center of these paragraphs was the concept that “There is a difference between being ‘childish’ and being ‘childlike,’ and that our invitation is to be like a child and not childish in how we live.”
    Buechner referenced Jesus calling the children to him and saying, “Those who would be like a child will be saved,” and he referred to Paul’s famous words in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians: “When I was a child, I spoke, reasoned, and acted like a child, but when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”  Both of these refer to the purity of childlike living, and that to be like a child is to trust, to see the world with joy and hope, and to share life with all around us.  I like that.
    I like this concept of the call to not be childISH but to live in childLIKE way.  To not hold onto the immature, self-focused aspects of childhood, but to open up to the seeds of life that God plants in us when we are born but which can easily be quelled as we ‘learn the ways of the world.’  I like this, because so often if we are observant, we see Christ alive through children...and those who boldly live like children of a loving and gracious God.

    I love VBS week, not only because of the children and what God does to and through them, but also because of what God does to and through God’s more seasoned children.  In the midst of a week of childlike living and growing, God always shows up, and when God shows up God brings life.
    But there is one thing I love even better than VBS week and all that it brings, and that is when the seeds that are planted during this special week take hold and sprout.  When the joy, hope, life, and love that is shared at VBS begins to be lived out at home, at work, and in the neighborhood.  When the Christ, or should I say ‘Christ-child,’ within each of us is revealed.  I love this especially because, not only does it change those around us and change the world, but it changes us.  It brings life to us.  It brings hope...resurrection...a kind of life which can only be described as “Childlike”...like the Child of God.


When was the last time you were bold enough to live a childlike life, unreserved and with reckless abandon?  If it’s been awhile, take some time to observe a child, learn from them, and act a bit more like them.