There are times when the old lingo gets in the way. I love the King James Version of the Bible, but the archaic language is sometimes a stumbling block. Which is why I have a study version of that Bible so that I can get a sense of what the true meaning and context is, and I also have more modern-language versions.

Because let’s say you read this in the KJV Bible:

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. (Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verse 15)

You might stop there and say, whoa, Jesus is telling me if I haven’t already repented during childhood, it’s too late?

Granted, a more thorough reading of the Bible regarding salvation would show you that just isn’t true. Take, for example, the hundreds of people who came to Christ…and God…after Pentecost, when the apostles were just getting started with their post-crucifixion work.

A better translation of this passage is something like this:

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

And now we get to the point of it all. In terms of faith, we have to approach God as a small child approaches a parent. And that’s very appropriate, given that God is our Father. Think about how many times our parents told us, “You may not understand or like what I’m doing, but you’ll understand when you have children of your own.” Damn it if they weren’t right a lot of the time when they said that.

We may not always like God’s rules or understand why some of them exist, but it’s not our job to like them or to understand them. Sometimes it’s just our place to obey and to trust. God is not an abusive parent. The sufferings of the world are not inflicted on us by Him but as a result of the fact we screwed up the world and made it a troubled place, along with the fact that Satan often assails us with suffering to make us doubt and mistrust God.

God wants us to choose to love Him and he wants us to be the best people we can be. And sometimes, that means we have to admit that we are woefully immature compared to Him. We have to hold on to Him and trust that our best interests are at heart.

To do any less is to be unruly children. And often, we are, even the most well-meaning of us. Even there, though, it’s all good if we have Jesus…and even if we don’t. Because God still loves us unconditionally. He may be disappointed in us, and He cannot save us if we disown Him by rejecting Jesus, but He’s always waiting there for us to take care of us.

And we need some taking care of. You notice the mess we’ve left on this world? And you thought little Timmy’s finger painting job on the antique armoire was bad…