Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:3-4

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Childlike

To break pride

Pride is hard to break. It rejects unconditional love. It so easily moves us to contempt of gifts, especially those of which we are unworthy. To squash pride, we must see the beauty of smallness, and see how desirable is vulnerability.

I have been moved by helplessness. But I do not yet desire it. I hope that, if helplessness comes upon me, I will at least embrace it with beauty.

Pride demands to be loved on its own terms, demands to understand love. But some love is beyond understanding.

Humility

To be small, humble, like a child, is to be unconscious of these demands. It accepts love with love, asking no questions, never measuring that love. A child trusts that the one who loves sees true beauty. It doesn’t need its lovableness to be a measure of the love it accepts.

To break pride, we must accept love as a child accepts the love of its father. It does not question. It does not judge or refuse the love. It runs, with arms outstretched, face beaming. In that very simpleness, the child becomes love.