Perspective: Doves, Snakes, and Children

Originally part of a Sunday School lesson delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church on January 24, 2010.¹
I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Doves, Snakes, and Children

Scripture:

Then little children were being brought to Him in order that He might lay His hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs.” And He laid His hands on them and went on His way.

Matthew 19:13-15

Let this old life crumble, let it fade
Let this new life offered be your saving grace

From "Let it Fade" by Jeremy Camp

If you study the Bible, you will probably notice that it sometimes seems to contradict itself. There is a story in the Gospels in which people are bringing their children to see Jesus. The Disciples try to send the people away, but Jesus reproves the Disciples, saying that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the childlike. On the other hand, if you flip ahead in your Bible to the first letter to the Corinthians, you'll notice that St. Paul writes, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways."² It would seem that Jesus is encouraging people to be like children while Paul is encouraging people not to be like children.

I think that the key to getting our heads around this apparent contradiction is to understand the difference between childlike and childish. When we think of a childish person, we generally think of someone who is irresponsible,³ selfish, and petty. On the other hand, when we think of a childlike person, we think of someone who is full of wonder, joyful, honest,⁴ hopeful, and loving. What we need to strive for is a sense of balance. We need to put away childish qualities like selfishness while holding fast to the childlike qualities like sincerity, joy, and unconditional love.

Though Christ calls us to be childlike, He does not call us to be naive. When Jesus sent His Disciples out into ministry, He told them to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves."^{5 6} In this single instruction, we see one animal, the dove, which is often symbolic of the Holy Spirit and another animal, the serpent, which is sometimes used as a symbol of evil. Christ knew that His Disciples would be met with resistance, so He wanted them to keep their wits about them.⁷ At the same time, though, He wanted them to be blameless. Likewise, we need to be "wise" to the ways of the world, but we cannot let it bring us down to its level, instead being "innocent as doves."

One of my new favorite television shows is The Pretender, which originally aired in the late 90s. The main character is a genius named Jarod who has spent most of his life in seclusion so that his intellect could be exploited by a research organization. He has the uncanny ability to assume any role he wants. On one episode Jarod might pose as a doctor. On another he might pretend to be a member of the coast guard. On another, a member of the police bomb squad.

I think that Jarod is a good example of a person who is childlike but not childish and a person who is street-smart but innocent. Having finally escaped from the researchers, it is not uncommon to see him playing with the toys he never saw as a child; however, his heart goes out to people who have been mistreated by others. Though full of childlike wonder, he is able to see through the deceit of evildoers. On each episode, Jarod seeks to bring closure to someone who has been wronged, using his pretending abilities to seek out the wrongdoer and to nonviolently cause the wrongdoer to incriminate himself.

Unfortunately, this life is not always what it was meant to be, and the world has a way of taking its toll on us. With all of the emotional scars and baggage that we pick up over the years, we can find it difficult to rediscover the innocence, joy, hope, honesty, and unconditional love found in the heart of a child. Perhaps this is just one of those things that we cannot hope to accomplish by ourselves.⁸

Jesus once told the religious leader Nicodemus that he needed to be "born again."⁹ We hear this term so much in Christian circles that it has almost become cliche. Being born again means so much more than "getting saved" or "finding religion." Christ offers us new life. Being born again means accepting this new life and letting God transform us, day by day, into the people He created us to be. It means letting Christ wipe our slate clean so that we can finally let go of the hurt and the burdens that the world has laid upon us so that we can rediscover our childlikeness.

My encouragement to all of us is that we turn to God so that He may give us the grace we need to rise above our childishness and to rediscover our childlikeness, and so that He may also give us the wisdom we need to survive in the world while not becoming like the world.


Notes:
1 - The basis of this Sunday School lesson is:
Simon Peter Iredale. "Declared in Prayer", Adult Bible Studies Winter 2009-10. Cokesbury.
Some key points came from this source, but I think I deviated enough from the original to post this article.
2 - 1 Corinthians 13:11
3 - Iredale, p. 56
4 - Iredale, p. 57
5 - Iredale, p. 58
6 - Matthew 10:16
7 - Iredale, p. 57-58
8 - Iredale, p. 58
9 - John 3:3-8 ("Born from above" in some versions)


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