Daddy, wipe my butt!

In an all-staff meeting yesterday, Matthew 18:1-5 was read, “…unless you change and become like children…” Other translations say something to the effect of “…unless you have the faith of a little child…”

But what does that mean?

Whenever I’ve pondered this question of having the faith of a little child, my mind goes to one of two places.

Greg Koukl described having the faith of a child (as opposed to having a childish faith) as “a willingness to trust.” And that’s good, I think.

But an even better expression of a childlike faith I believe is summed up in the picture of a 2 or 3 year old calling from the bathroom “Daddy, come wipe my butt!”

Sorry if that seems distasteful or crass, but it’s our decorum and sense of pride that usually prevents us from living the child-like faith I’m discussing in the first place, so I’m going there. Because I believe nothing is more accurate.

The thing about Koukl’s definition is this: small children are not WILLING to trust, as if they’re conceding control to allow it. THEY JUST TRUST. They’re not aware of their dependency, because they’ve known no independence. They don’t process their need for their parents as something diluting their own self-sufficiency, because they know no self-sufficiency. The attachment they’ve been forming around these two people called mommy and daddy is holistic and all-encompassing: from food, warmth, and comfort, to bathroom hygeine.

Dependency is life. Trust is all there is.

A child is not embarrased by their vulnerability and need. It’s all they know. They have one perspective, and it is this:

When I have a need, any need, I summon my parents.

Would that we ran to God with the same genuine, unfiltered, raw dependence….as if we knew no other way.