Then He called a child to Him and had him stand among them. “I assure you,” He said, “unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child-this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me. But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me-it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!”     Matthew 18:3-6 HCSB

As a child I grew up singing songs like, Jesus Loves the Little Children and Jesus Loves Me. I grew up playing fun schoolyard games. Adulting is hard and there were many times when I think back to how good life was when I was a child.

Sadly, I realize that many children live in homes where they endure torturous circumstances at the hands of those who they should be able to trust. This has long-term even generational consequences.

As Christians, we are children of God. We would do well to do as children often do. Children often imitate what they see their parents do. Many people wrongly believe we are all God’s children. We all have the opportunity to become a child of God. To do so, we must accept Christ as our Savior. When we do this, God becomes our heavenly Father, and we become an adopted child of God. As God’s children, we are to imitate our Father. Ephesians 5:1 says, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children.”

As adults we are more apt to play games with God like Hide and Seek. We get lost in our goals, desires, and responsibilities. We are told in Luke 19:10 that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. In Matthew 18:12 and Luke 15:4 Jesus tells a parable about a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to search for one that is lost. This is to illustrate the importance of each individual to God. We are told that he knows us by name. Isaiah 43:1 says, “Do not fear, I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are mine.” Luke 12:7 says He even knows the number of hairs on our heads.

Remember Red Rover? There were two lines and when your name was called you ran as fast and hard as you could in hopes of breaking through the other line and bringing one of their members back to your team. If you failed to break the line, you became a member of their team. As adults there are two teams that want us. God definitely wants us to go to heaven and spend eternity with Him. The devil wants us on His team. This is why we must attend a good Bible teaching church and study our Bible and pray daily. This strengthens us against the devil breaking through our defense and trying to get us on his side.

Another fun game from the old days was tug of war. This is a game God is not going to play with you. I used to find myself playing this game when I would bring a problem to God in prayer. I would claim I was giving it over but hang on to it and try to figure out how I could solve it. This never worked out well. God is not going to tug and pull the problem away from us. Either we freely give it and let it go or we hold on to it.

It was fun to play games as a child. As an adult, however, I find it much easier to have that child-like trust in my heavenly Father. I trust in Him to take good care of me and He does. It’s not complicated. I don’t know what your life was like as a child, but I know you can surrender to Him today. You can spend the rest of your life having a great childhood with your heavenly Father.

Have a great day!