We were running late for school and I was in stressed-dad mode. As I was pleading with my kids to hurry up, grab their things, and get out of the car, my 5-year-old, Clementine, jumped into the front seat. “A ladybug dad! I found a ladybug! In our car. Can you believe it?!” As I hurried her toward the front door of the school, she stopped to tell every single person about the ladybug as if she had just witnessed a person raised from the dead.
Reflecting on my daughter’s over-enthusiasm for something I’ve seen hundreds of times, I thought, “who has the more accurate view of reality here, her or me?” I am pragmatic, responsible, and always thinking about my long list of daily tasks as a father and pastor. Meanwhile, my daughter stops to appreciate the wonder and joy of finding a small, pretty insect.
Those who spend time around kids know this is just one of countless daily examples in which they are euphoric about the small, often unnoticed parts of our world. Bugs, flowers, paper airplanes, motorcycles, the moon (particularly when you can see it in the daytime), digging holes in the dirt, the pointy hairs on my face (they call them ‘tickle-ees’), a chickadee whistle, and fresh Colorado snow. All these things that I briefly acknowledge but generally ignore are cause for jubilant celebration among children. So which approach to life is more in line with the reality of God’s creation: theirs or mine?
What Jesus Taught
Jesus once used children as a primary illustration to teach us how we must approach his kingdom.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:1-4).
According to Jesus, it’s not the wise, accomplished, powerful, and successful who enter the kingdom of heaven. Rather, Jesus tells those people, you must turn and become like children. Similarly, in John 3:3, Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. In other words, you must have your life and worldview so radically reoriented by the gospel of Jesus, that it’s like starting over again as a child; humble and dependent on another. Jesus called this repentance (Mark 1:14-15).
The Immanent Frame
In Philosopher Charles Taylor’s seminal work, A Secular Age, he outlines the concept of the “immanent frame.” The immanent, or closed, frame explains how the current construct of Western society is built without reference to the spiritual or supernatural realm. We have closed ourselves off from an entire dimension of reality in favor of what’s observable and material. As a result, we live without a sense of true wonder or enchantment.
I sense the immanent frame is driving a collective sense of malaise and dissatisfaction with the modern world. Modern people are experiencing extreme levels of existential angst and nihilism. I believe we are experiencing so much anxiety, boredom, and confusion because ignoring the spiritual world cuts against our anthropology and the deepest parts of us that long to be in connection with God. What can we do? We can follow Jesus’s wisdom by becoming like children.
Magic Mirror
The musician John Mark McMillan wrote a song called “Magic Mirror” about how his children gave him new eyes to see different aspects of God. He sings,
Bloody like my Savior King, you came to me
I’ll admit that I’d not always had eyes to see
Are you some kind of magic mirror?
Come to show to me
God with my own face?
Are you some kind of magic mirror?
Come show to me
God in time and space?
Here McMillan tells the story of how his children opened his blind imagination to see God and his creation more vividly. Their crayon drawings on his freshly painted walls are not just another annoying cleaning task. Rather, he writes,
The writing on my walls
It’s orange and pink and blue
I come home to find the evidence of you
Their messy creativity is evidence of God. Becoming a father helped McMillan capture in his own life the same wonder and excitement that God wove into creation. Likewise, here are three ways I have found my own children have acted as a magic mirror in helping me find greater life within the malaise of our secular world.
1) Enchantment
Children are not naturally attuned to the immanent frame. They are born into an enchanted world , but the immanent frame conditions them as they age. The immanent frame has no telos. It strips the world of meaning because it views life as random and purposeless instead of created for the glory of God. A ladybug is the byproduct of millions of years of natural selection and has no reason to exist other than to survive and reproduce instead of purposely made by God to show off his creativity and beauty. Seeing the world through my children’s eyes helps reorient me to a God-infused world covered in his fingerprints.
2) Joy Over Cynicism
A natural result of living within the immanent frame is skepticism toward anything that science and reason cannot clearly explain. For example, when someone describes having a divine encounter, a modern person is apt to call it a coincidence or mental delusion. At the same time, we know life is far more than numbers and figures. We are constantly inconveniencing ourselves in our search for glory. Given the opportunity to drive “the scenic route,” versus the efficient one, we will often choose the route where we can witness something new or wonderful instead of getting us home sooner.
Likewise, Jesus observed that children are humble, appearing as dependent and sincere. They don’t understand what it means to be cynical or jaded. If they sense a miracle, they will sprint toward it without regard to feeling wrong, embarrassed, or self-conscious. In this, they are modeling joy in God that’s consistent with his good will being done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).
3) Gospel Confidence
My kids are not shy about believing in God, the resurrected Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, miracles, going to church, or their desire for baptism. They believe in supernaturally strong Judges, divided Red Seas, frightening demons, angelic messengers, talking donkeys, and a risen Saviors ascending into the heavens.
When I watch my children learn and engage faith, I remember that Jesus pointed to them as how to live in his kingdom. I also remember Paul’s words about how God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). I am often the strong being shamed by the weak. Too often I am full of the world’s wisdom, while my children preach to me the foolishness of God, which is true wisdom.
The immanent frame has such a tight grip on the Western World, that choosing to live in the greater reality of God’s world makes us look like fools. It’s even common for faithful Christians to be self-conscious of a truly biblical approach to life. I want to become more like my children who are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16).
Through The Eyes Of A Child
My children show me that I don’t have to live in the prison of a secular, disenchanted world. Like the hole they are currently digging in my front yard (and ruining my flower beds) to tunnel to their friend’s house across the street, they know the path to escape and find deeper joy in a world of God’s presence, glory, creativity, and wonder.
In helping reorient me to an enchanted world, my children have given me a greater understanding of the gospel. The salvific work of Christ is dependent on belief in a supernatural God who breaks into our world shrouded in darkness. In his power, good will, and grace he did something unexplainable under the immanent frame; he raised a dead Messiah to life so that spiritually dead people can be raised to life. Being born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3) frees us from the spiritually lifeless immanent frame. Like children, we become attuned to a living, active, and personal God who will one day renew the whole creation to show off the fullness of his glory.
For more gospel-centered wisdom, consider using Rooted’s Family Discipleship Curriculum with your church or small group.
