Mark 10:15 reads, “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

I used to have the wrong understanding of this passage. It wasn’t until I had a daughter of my own that I truly began to realize what Christ meant when he spoke these words. I used to think it was that a child just accepts God’s love, His plan, with little or no questioning. That a child, trusting and full of wonder, will accept the Truth that God loves us so much that He became a man and died for our salvation.

And I guess maybe that’s not wrong, but it’s a very simplified, and itself childlike understanding of the true meaning of the passage.

I was sitting downstairs at my house with my daughter, who was just rolling around on the floor like the maniac she is. My wife was sitting on the couch behind us, working on her laptop. It was a very hot day, so Veronika was just in a diaper. We watched as she learned to pull herself up into a standing position on our coffee table. She was very pleased with herself, and started to giggle and bounce up and down.

And in that moment, something clicked and my mind was brought to that passage. In that joy and mirth I saw in my daughter, I realized Christ’s message of a childlike acceptance of God.

See, in that moment I saw a happiness that I can only imagine is what Eternity must be like. Standing almost naked and dancing, my daughter knows no shame. Smiling and giggling when she meets new people, my daughter knows no prejudice or bigotry. She knows no hate, or anger, or sloth, or avarice, or pride. All the sins that we embrace as we grow older, that weigh our souls down and turn us further away from God, my daughter knows nothing of, but more importantly, has no use for.

The petty grudges and annoyances we as adults refuse to let go, children do. When we do something wrong at work, how often are we unwilling or cautious to repeat the same activity, for fear of messing up or failing again? When someone wrongs us, or cuts us off in traffic, we plot and scheme, wishing and hoping to get even. My daughter is learning to stand, and will soon be walking. She falls and when she does she screams out, scared by the fall and the pain of hitting her head. But she doesn’t let that stop her. She gets right back up and does it again. If I accidentally drop her, or scratch her, she doesn’t resent me, she is grabbing for me and giving me little baby kisses the next minute. While I am still punishing and cursing myself for being so clumsy, she has already forgiven me.

A child can get into Heaven because they are more like God than adults will ever be. They are a more perfect creation, a more pure example of how God wants us to be. A human, with no petty grievances holding them back from achieving the awesome potential and unconditional love that He wants for us all.

In His infinite wisdom, Christ wanted us to see that a child accepts the Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom is nothing but happiness. It is constant achievement. It is without fear, or hurt, or anger. It knows no class, no sex, no color, no creed. Christ is asking us why children so ready and willing to accept something so logical, something that will better each individual who decides that happiness is better than hate, but we as adults are not? Something that will break down the walls that divide us and bring us closer to perfection…

Questioning is useful, but only if we seek our questions to be answered. Children ask questions because they want an answer. As we grow up, and buy into this idea of intellectualism, as our minds “expand” and our hearts harden, we often question just to ask why, we question to debate, and not to seek knowledge. In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis writes, “Listen! Once you were a child. Once you knew what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Become that child again: even now.”

We are not meant to blindly follow. We are not meant to give unquestioning obedience to God; a love of God without choice or thought, or passion, is not love at all. But Christ wants us, in our childlike acceptance of God, to ask our questions with the goal of finding the truth, and once we are confronted with the Truth, to have the childlike humility to accept it. God does not want blind love, but once our eyes are open, He wants it unfailingly.

But if we accept God like a child, how is it possible to give Him anything less?