Thought for the Day, 14 September 2006

Anne Atkins

As a child, I asked my mother why books about children are written by grown-ups, who can't remember what it's like. "Then remember," she said, "and when you're grown up, you can write them."

I tell you the truth: unless you receive the Kingdom of God like a child, you'll never enter it. Interpretations abound as to what Jesus meant about that Other Country of childhood. Its humble status? Its lack of cynicism? He didn't say. But elsewhere, he described many childlike characteristics needed for those who want to follow Him.

Children are poor and unimportant - despite so-called "children's rights", oppressive safety or Pester Power. Watch a child attempt to join an adults' conversation; or try to finish a project, or enjoy a sunset, when others are hurrying. And Jesus said it's easier for those who don't matter to join His kingdom than it is for us, the rich and powerful... so it's in the Third World that Christianity's growing, not the mighty West.

Children are beautifully simple - though we now force them into a complex technological world, where playing with a wooden spoon isn't good enough. And Jesus thanked His Fa-ther for hiding insights from the sophisticated, and revealing them to little children.

Children joy and delight in the world - though contemporary capitalism depends on our teaching them dissatisfaction. When our daughter suffered a devastating illness, the only thing I could think of, after we'd exhausted all conventional anti-depressants, was another child to cheer us... and so it proved. She gave her sister a reason to live, brought laughter back into our darkness, and when things got bad again it was the thought of her exuberant smile that kept my husband going through the winter. And Christians too should rejoice in all circumstances, Saint Paul said... and said it again: rejoice!

Children see truth in black and white - though we constantly strive to make them subtle. If they're starving and we've got too much let's send it to Africa, Daddy! Ah, it doesn't work like that darling. This Sunday the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge will host an art exhibition and concert by those on the autism spectrum. Adults with Asperger syndrome seem able to retain this childlike uncompromising clarity, and I wonder whether the rise in its diagnosis is not so much because more have Asperger's, as because of an increased intolerance of any unconventional viewpoint. When children speak truth, nobody listens; and no one will respect you, Jesus said, but hate you because of me.

But there's one supreme advantage children have over us. Don't you envy them what's to come? I tell you the truth: whatever you give up in this life, you'll receive it back a hundred times, and inherit eternal life.

No matter how insignificant they are, little children own the future. Suffer them to come unto me, He said, for my Kingdom belongs to such as these.