Be like little children

Mon­day. [I Cor. 11:31-12:1; Matt. 18:1-11] Ex­cept ye be con­vert­ed, and be­come as lit­tle chil­dren, ye shall not en­ter in­to the King­dom of Heav­en. The struc­ture of a child’s heart is a mod­el for all. Chil­dren, be­fore egotistical striv­ings have come out in them, are a mod­el for im­i­ta­tion. What do we see In chil­dren? Com­plete faith, which does not rea­son; undebating obe­di­ence; sin­cere love; lack of wor­ry and peace un­der their par­ents’ roof; liveliness and fresh­ness of life, with ac­tive­ness and a de­sire to learn and be­come more per­fect. But the Sav­iour par­tic­u­lar­ly em­pha­sizes one of their vir­tues — hu­mil­i­ty: Who­so­ev­er shall hum­ble him­self as this lit­tle child, the same is great­est in the King­dom of Heav­en. For as soon as there is true hu­mil­i­ty, all of the vir­tues are there. It is re­veal­ed per­fect­ly when the oth­er vir­tues have al­ready bloomed in the heart and reach ma­tu­ri­ty; it is their crown and pro­tec­tion. This is the mys­tery of spir­i­tu­al life in our Lord Je­sus Christ. Who­ev­er is higher is more hum­ble, be­cause he more clear­ly and tan­gi­bly sees that it is not he who la­bours suc­cess­ful­ly, but the grace which is in him; and this is the mea­sure of the age of Christ’s ful­fil­ment. For the main thing in Christ Je­sus is that He hum­bled Him­self, and be­came obe­di­ent un­to death.