While preaching through Mark chapter ten this week, one of our elders, Paul Mulner, drew attention to how much Jesus encourages believers to be like children. Likely pulling on his legs and asking him a million questions like my own children do, they were interrupting Jesus as he spoke. As the children were being rebuked, Jesus calls off the serious and scandalized adults, summoning them to lose their trepidation and receive the kingdom like the children they saw before them — like the children they used to be.

When you give a child a gift, they take it with great anticipation. But when you give a gift to an adult, they take it with skepticism and an obligation to return the favor. What happens to us? When does grace become so hard to receive? The children come to Jesus with calm and joy, ready to play and to engage, but adults come with timidity and fear. Jesus isn’t saying that we should come to him flippantly, but we also shouldn’t come to him in a state of nervous decorum. He loves us and he has taken the barrier of our sin out of the way, cancelling the record of debt that stood against us, nailing it to the cross. His love for us is immense, and perfect love casts out fear.

What might it look like to receive the kingdom like a child today? Maybe entering his courts with thanksgiving, not fear that we are interrupting him with our prayers, or taking what he gives with joy, excitement, without regard for reimbursement.