Unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. We usually read this as 'be innocent' or 'be simple.' But maybe Jesus means something more unsettling.
A child's primary mode is openness and receptivity. They don't pretend to know things they don't know. They ask questions. They're curious about how things work. They experience wonder. Somewhere in growing up, we become convinced we need to already know, to have it figured out, to protect ourselves from vulnerability. Jesus is saying that posture doesn't work in the kingdom. You have to come back to the willingness to learn, to be surprised, to admit you don't understand. That's embarrassing and hard. My teenage niece asked me why I thought I had to have an answer about theology before I'd admit I was confused. She said, 'Isn't the point that you don't understand, so you follow?' That simple observation cut through years of trying to construct certainty. Becoming like a child means coming back to wonder and admission of limitation.
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