Amen,
I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it
Matthew 10:15
The common interpretation of this verse is that we should accept the kingdom of God as a child would. However, as I was praying over this, I realize that there is a different interpretation to this. If we read a few verses up from this, we see Jesus telling the disciples that, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me." (Mark 9:37)
This got me to think that another way of interpreting the first verse is that we have to accept the kingdom of God as we would accept a child. If we look at the verse this way, then a different perspective comes up. I can speak from experience that welcoming a child can indeed be very difficult.
I was a bachelor until I was 31 years old. When I finally got married, my life did not change much. Of course, now, I had a wife to think of. My life was now shared with Marie. When we knew that we were going to have a baby, things began to change. The focus was now towards the baby. Everything revolved around the baby. Our schedules, our activities (what we can do and what we can't do), etc. Things were changing up to the day she was born. We had to set up the house for the baby. We had to buy things for the baby.
From that time she was born, our focus was on her. Everything centered on her. Our work schedules, our home schedules, our sleeping and waking times and even the food we were to eat. I guess those who have had babies know very well what happens.
However, despite all these 'troubles', there was a joyful expectation.
And I believe that my experience with my daughter (and more so with my son), shows that indeed, welcoming God's kingdom should be a joyful experience. Being ruled by God is a joy. BUT you should also expect that your life will change. Once you welcome God into your life, your focus will be on him. Just as a child disrupts everything in our lives, he too will disrupt our lives - for the better of course! Everything will and should revolve around the Lord.
May the Lord then give us the grace to re-focus our lives on him and detach ourselves from all things so that our lives can revolve around him.
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