Simplicity

An instructor of mine told this story about herself. When she, Anna, was eight years old she overheard her father talking to her mother on his phone about their vacation plans. What she heard was, “We’ll take the Pontiac up the coast (of California) and catch the circus in San Francisco.” What she thought she heard was, “We’ll take the pony act up the coast and join the circus in San Francisco.” For several months Anna believed that her family would be performing a pony act with the circus, and that they would live and work in the circus.. Her only anxiety was that she thought that her parents might expect her to train ponies. She said, “I knew that I didn’t know how to do that.”

I asked if she was disappointed when she knew the truth. “No,” she said, “Dad just said ‘Get in the car; We’re ready to go,’ and I said, ‘Where are the ponies?’ “He asked, ‘What ponies?’ “And I knew that I had made a mistake, so I got in the car with my brother and we went on vacation. It was one of our best vacations. The circus was great.”

Jesus called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he 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. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:1-5) These are some of the strongest words of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven. We often fail to listen to them in our desires to be part of the adult world of coping and achieving.

Anna’s spirit throughout this episode was one of profound simplicity. In her fantasy she imagined an event about which she thought she had clear information. She liked the idea of living with the circus, but surrendered it happily when she knew the truth.

I believe that Jesus seeks a similar simplicity in us. When God first visited the boy Samuel, God found the same quality of simplicity, and the boy grew to be one of the great prophets of Israel. (1 Samuel 3:1-10)

Childlike simplicity is linked to greatness in Jesus’ words. It means that the soul is receptive to the Spirit of God, as it is not absorbed by its own self or worldly concerns. In our world the complexities of life challenge the simplicity that Jesus saw in children, but his statement that this is the greatest quality in the kingdom of heaven is as true today as it was when Jesus uttered it.

Love in Him,

Prue