Thursday, January 31, 2013

Faith Like a Child

We're reading through Matthew right now as a part of our Bible Reading Challenge, and earlier in the week we hit Matthew 17 and especially Jesus' words in verses 20-21 struck us:

He replied, "Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth,
if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,
'Move from here to there' and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you."

We discussed what that meant, and what an indictment it was of the strength of our faith and how positively insidious and destructive doubt can be.  But all of our deep, adult discussions meant nothing, we realized that night, as our 4 year old daughter illuminated the meaning of that Scripture for us as casually as if she was telling us that the sky was blue or that she had cereal for breakfast.  As we were wrapping up the 30 minute long bedtime process, after singing, dancing, and prayers, Cecily quietly and authoritatively told us that Grandma was sitting next to Jesus.  There was no doubt.  No hesitation.  These were not just trite words, oft-repeated without thought.  It was an expression of complete and total belief.  The knowledge was as real and certain to her as her knowledge that her dad and I were standing next to her bed.  That, we realized, is the faith that can move mountains.