Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher, speaker and writer on spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his book “The Scandal of the Kingdom.”
Children excel at persistence and humility. When children fall down, they get up and try again. They learn to talk by steadily babbling. As little children grow, they possess an unlimited ability to humbly persist in learning things and never quitting…The humility of little children shows in how they don’t have to think about “saving face.” “Saving face” is a façade-saving device. Grownups are not saving face, but saving the façade they have created to manage how they appear to those around them. A little child doesn’t yet have a façade to save. This kind of honesty—tearing away all the pretenses and just being who we are—is what enables us to have a tender heart that is honest and vulnerable…If we are to be humble like a child and be great in the kingdom of the heavens, we must turn from the normal human attitude that says we are competent and quite capable of managing our lives on our own…When we understand our place in the rule of God, we naturally humble ourselves under his mighty hand and depend on him to care for us.
And [Jesus] said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 18:3-4]
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