Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child

Last night at dinner I was sharing with my family an idea I had for a sermon from Joshua 2 and the story of Rahab and the spies. I know, don't you wish you could have dinner at our house?

Anyway, I was making the point that in order to believe what God has done, we must first hear about it. But simply hearing about it is not enough; many hear the message of God's mighty works and still refuse to believe. This calls into question why some believe and others do not.

I went on to share with my family my thoughts on the matter. It seems to me that if some hearers believe, while there are others who do not, there are really only three explanations. I put the three options in the first person for purposes of illustration:

1. I am smarter than all those non-believers, and as a result was able to figure out what they had not figured out.
2. I am better than all those non-believers, and therefore did not have my judgment clouded by sin the way they did.
3. By his grace and for his own purposes, God chose to work savingly in me in a way that he did not work in non-believers.

As the third option was still rolling off my tongue, my seven year old daughter blurted out, "I'll take the last one!" Yes, indeed, my daughter knows me well: I am neither smarter nor better than most people. But more importantly than knowing the nature of her earthly father, I am thankful that she also knows the nature of her heavenly one!