From the Mouths of Babes*

My youngest daughter is only five years old and she prays all the time: for Daddy to come home safely from his journey, for her sister to be happy, to find the bits of lego that she needs or her missing library book. What is amazing is that when either of my daughters cannot find something they will pray together to find it. They always do. They do this quite naturally without ever having read ‘For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them’


It is very interesting to talk to my youngest about God because she is so natural about it. If I ask her what happens when she prays, she says she is talking to God.
‘Does he talk back?’
‘Yes,’ she says earnestly and looking at me like I’m a bit stupid ‘he talks to my heart’.
‘And how do you know it is God?’ I am clearly even more stupid now
‘because it IS! Only God talks to your heart like that.’

So what is the nature of this relationship between God and little children? It is far less questioning, far less intellectual, perhaps, than the one that we try and cultivate throughout our lives. It seems to be something that comes entirely naturally to them. Importantly, there is a distinction between their belief in childhood fantasy figures like Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy. Both my children believe that these figures exist and, indeed, have both attempted to communicate with them too, leaving letters and treats out for them. The crucial difference seems to be that they do not pray to the fantasy figures, only God and they tell me, it is only God who talks to their hearts.

I have often wondered if this is what Jesus meant when he said ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ...anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it’

There is a poem that I love by Elizabeth Jennings called Summer and Time which observes that children are able to live in the present moment without attempting to ‘mix up time’. They are not worrying about what they have done, what they will do but live in the ‘present hour’. I can see this ability slowly being chipped away at in my eldest daughter as she is conditioned at school into thinking through consequences, of considering how her actions will impact – and this is necessary and desirable, but slowly she is ceasing to just be in the ‘present hour’.



I do wonder if it is the point about being in the present moment in order to be able to communicate with God that is so important. This is something that we must work on maintaining or we lose it as we grow up and learn to ‘tease the sun-dial’. It goes along with the idea that Jesus teaches in Luke 12:22 ‘do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.’ This is certainly true of little children. They do not worry about such things. Such distractions are of no concern to them as they will all be taken care of somehow which is what Jesus says ‘seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you’.

Perhaps we should endeavour to be in the present moment more, put more faith in God and not spend so much time lamenting our mistakes of yesterday and worrying about what to do next. Perhaps this would allow us to experience that still, small voice of God. I wonder if the way that children explore the world with fascination and joy, living in the moment and feeling God speaking to their hearts is what Jesus was talking about.

*Geeky reference: this reference, which is commonly used, is actually from Psalm 8:10