Pilgrim Soldier

What does it mean to have the faith of a little child?

Whenever people use this phrase they seem to be advocating a style of faith that is totally unquestioning. This is the sort of faith that accepts things without any doubts and never asks any questions whatsoever. My problem is that I don’t quite buy this anymore.

Having a daughter who is almost 3 tells me that children are anything but unquestioning. Sian asks questions all the time and accepts very little at face value. “What’s that?”, “What happened?”, “Where are we going?” and I’m sure very soon will come “Why?”. None of these questions show a willingness to not question. However, despite the inquisitiveness of the ceaseless questioning, when Sian gets an answer she has a think and then decides whether the answer we gave satisfies the question or not.

Strangely though, despite having heard this phrase countless times over the years, I can’t seem to find it in the Bible. I can find where Jesus said that we should not hinder children coming to Him. I can find where He said that we must humble ourselves as a child. I can find where it says that we won’t enter the Kingdom of God unless we receive it like a little child.

I might well be wrong, but I suspect that those who use this phrase to argue that we shouldn’t question God’s actions have got it wrong. I suspect that it is used more often by people to stop others from questioning their interpretation of what God is saying, rather than questioning God Himself.

Now I would say that I want people to question what I teach, because I might have got it wrong. I want those who come to faith to receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, but I also want them to constantly seek a deeper and deeper relationship with our Lord and Saviour. I want them to question why things happen and what things mean rather than blindly following the teaching that they receive. Otherwise how do we ever know whether we’ve been duped by false teaching?