Enter The Kingdom Of God Like A Child, And Enjoy How Colourful It is

I was watching my baby daughter play recently, and I noticed that all the toys were multi-coloured. In fact, everything we buy her is multi-coloured. There is a good reason for this, and that is that babys are fascinated by colour, they really enjoy looking at things that are colourful. It’s not just the toy that makes playing fun, it’s the joy of seeing all the colours that are part of the toy.

As I was thinking about all this, I was also preparing dinner for my wife and myself. It was a salad. As I looked into the salad bowl I was suddenly struck by how colourful it was. Red tomatoes, brown mushrooms, yellow corn, green leaves, black olives, white onion… and then it struck me…

My heavenly Father is offering me, his child, the same thing I offer my baby daughter. He’s offering me the chance to enjoy colour. God wants my life to be colourful, and he has even created all of creation to make it possible not only for me, but for every single person on earth.

But, you know, we don’t think of ourselves as children. Oh no, we’re the adults. We’ve got better things to do. More important things. More urgent things… which led me to my next thought.

Maybe when Jesus said unless you become like a little child you’ll never enter the Kingdom of God he was not talking about some future salvation, he was talking about being able to enter into God’s joy, into God’s reality of love, into all that is God – into God’s rest. Into the reality of God’s Fatherly embrace.

Maybe becoming like a child is not to earn some place in heaven, but to enjoy our place on earth. God is not waiting for us in heaven. God is with us. This is the wonderful reality of the gospel. God is with us. Right here. Right now. And God is not a tyrant or a task master. God is our Father, and a wonderful Father at that.

You know, he’s created the world to be enjoyed, but we’ve got to rewind a little. We’ve got to slow down a whole lot. We’ve got to act like my little baby daughter, and enjoy the simple beauty of things that are colourful.

Slow down. Look around. Be like a child, you’ll really start seeing God’s everyday gifts to you when you do. I guarantee you’ll be amazed at just how colourful life truly is.