Children can be much wiser than we think and we sometimes underestimate their spiritual wisdom. A chaplain tells of how they were using nesting dolls with a child and she asked the question ‘Which one is God? Is it the smallest one who lives inside of me or the biggest one who holds all the others?’ What wisdom from a child has surprised you? 

When Jesus tells his disciples that anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it, he is, in fact, urging all of them to keep thinking of the child-like qualities that people sometimes lose as they age. These could be qualities that are crucial for the kingdom culture that Jesus is envisaging. The invitation of Jesus has not only been ‘Let the children come’ but is also ‘Come to me as children would.’ 

The words and actions of Jesus here may have been particularly shocking to those listening, because of the low status of children. Children were powerless, and it would not have been obvious how the kingdom could come through powerlessness, not more traditional forceful means. But in powerlessness there is only God to depend on.