Who is the Greatest?

Becoming like little children. 

Pursuit of the kingdom.

A parent’s job. 

In the story from Matthew chapter eighteen, Jesus teaches the lesson about The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. He was asked, “who is greatest in the kingdom?” and answered, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I’m starting to see what Jesus meant here. 

Children are naturally curious and open. They are ready to notice and wonder. To be surprised and delighted. Children can more easily be fully engaged, asking and learning, and soaking in the moments. Yes, we must grow in our spiritual maturity, but we should never lose the joy, wonder, and appreciation of life. 

In Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism, he teaches us to pursue what is most essential in life. So, he gives us three questions to help us discover and determine what is essential to pursue: 1. What inspires us? 2. Where do we have talent or a great desire to develop talent? 3. What meets a significant need in the world? These three questions give us a lot of room to explore life and develop talents and understanding of the world. Just as children are open to surprise and delight, we too can discover our hearts’ cry. We can allow Life to reveal the kingdom of heaven, the way we are wired to live and serve this world that God so loves. 

Randy Pausch was dying of cancer, and he had three young children. He was a professor preparing for his final lecture. He decided to develop this lecture, and the book that followed, as a lesson and message for his children he would not get to see grow up. The title of his lecture was, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. One of my favorite lines from this lecture is “a parent's job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams.” I love this! We are to encourage children, and we are to be like children. We can pursue anything. And if we open our hearts and allow God to speak to our hearts, He will lead us to discover what is essential and what is meant by the kingdom of heaven. Our hearts cry out, and we can answer that cry, and the question, "who is the greatest?" Those who live in this world and serve this world like little children, with deep joy for life.