At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Matthew 18:1-5 NRSV
I have often wondered what exactly did Jesus mean when he said that we must be humble like a child? A lot of the definitions for humility, according to my understanding, don't seem to fit. But, yet they do.
Humility includes the ability to put the needs of others before yourself. From what I have observed, children often put their own needs before the needs of others. It begins when they are babies crying to be held; crying to have their needs met. But; then again, that crying alone tells us that these children are really dependent on others. They cannot fulfill their own needs. Likewise; to be like little children, we must also recognize that we cannot fulfill our own needs, either. We depend on God who is the creator of all that was and is and will be. We depend on Him to supply our daily bread; to supply us even with the breath of life. We depend on Jesus the Christ for our salvation. And, we depend on the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see that we need God, the Father; God, the Son; and God the Holy Spirit if we ever plan to live life in the Kingdom of God. We cannot get there on our own. We are dependent upon God.
In humility, we come before Him and worship the one true God, acknowledging that we can do or be nothing worthwhile without Him. We need Him every hour! We need him every minute; every second, of every day!
God's Peace - Pr. J
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