“And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3 (NIV)
One day last week, a Jewish resident at the Nursing Facility was talking about Mikva baths, and their ritual uses for cleansing according to Jewish religious laws. I immediately thought of the story in the gospel of the woman with the hemorrhage, who would have been required by Jewish law to be cleansed by a Mikva bath.
I turned to a resident sitting beside me, who I’ve become friends with and knowing she believes in Jesus, I told her that the Mikva bath reminds me of that particular gospel story. I wasn’t sure if she knew that story, so I shifted into my Sunday school teacher mode. Even though it’s been 40 years since I taught Sunday school, I still enjoy telling any of those stories from the Bible.
The resident, who I will call Jan, for privacy reasons, will be 75 years old this month, but she listened to the story just as a child would. When I got to the part of how the woman crawled through the crowd, just to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment, I paused to ask the Jewish resident what the fringe part of a Jewish prayer shawl is called, and he said that it’s called “Tzitzit.”
So I continued telling the story to Jan of how the woman merely touched the “Tzitzit” of Jesus’ prayer shawl, and her bleeding immediately stopped as she was miraculously healed. Then Jesus stopped walking and asked “Who touched Me?” With a large crowd all around Him, the disciples said “Lord, so many are touching you”, but Jesus said, “No, I just felt power coming out of Me.”
While telling that part of the story, Jan looked at me as she listened with a sense of awe. As her eyes widened with amazement, she suddenly burst out loud, saying
“I love Jesus!”
That’s what I call a Sunday school moment, when a Bible story touches a heart with such amazement, as it would do for a child in a Sunday school class. Jan’s excited response sparked a flame within me and I could feel her childlike excitement. I readily agreed with her, saying,
“Me too!”
Jan is not a child, but she received a gospel story with the heart of a child, as Jesus described in today’s scripture. She was as excited as if she were right there watching it all first hand. Her heart was set on fire by a story about Jesus and in all of her enthusiasm, she lit my heart on fire as well.
While driving home and thinking about that Sunday school moment, I couldn’t stop smiling. Jesus told us to change and become like a child, and He meant that for believers of all ages, despite how much we already know. Jan’s spontaneous childlike response lit a flame in my heart and something changed in me at that moment. That’s what we are all meant to do for one another.
Having the heart of a child means there is always something new to learn about Jesus, always a yearning for more of His presence, and a fire to keep burning in our hearts for Him.
Sunday school moments are not only inspired by stories in the bible. They could be real life stories of people we know or meet each day. We might hear stories from people who received a miracle, a long waited answer to prayer, or a faith inspiring experience with Jesus. We become like a child whenever we light the fire of wonder and awe in someone else’s heart or they light ours.
Lord, keep the fire burning in our hearts so that we will always find excitement to learn and yearn for more of you. Amen
