To live under the direct command and government of the living God (what Jesus calls the kingdom of God) requires us to be childlike — to be open, informal, interactive, changeable, honest, humble, simple, real, enthusiastic, playful. Perhaps when we gather for worship we need to create an environment where those present have the freedom to be childlike.  Here are some inspiring quotes I found on the subject of the value of being childlike:

“Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” –Jesus

“We must try to recover the candor and wonder of the child; the unspoilt realism and objectivity of innocence. Or if we cannot do that, we must try at least to shake off the cloud of mere custom.”  –G.K. Chesterton

“Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.”  –Brennan Manning

“Throughout his life, Albert Einstein would retain the intuition and the awe of a child. He never lost his sense of wonder at the magic of nature’s phenomena-magnetic fields, gravity, inertia, acceleration, light beams-which grown-ups find so commonplace. He retained the ability to hold two thoughts in his mind simultaneously, to be puzzled when they conflicted, and to marvel when he could smell an underlying unity. ‘People like you and me never grow old,’ he wrote a friend later in life. ‘We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.’”  –Walter Isaacson

“It takes a childlike heart to feel the promptings of the Spirit, to surrender to those commands, and to obey.”  –Henry B. Eyring

(While I don’t agree with all of theses people’s beliefs about God — Erying was a Mormon and Einstein an agnostic — their statements about our need to be childlike, are powerful.)

If you would like to experience a church service based on childlike hearts obeying the nudgings of the Holy Spirit, visit The Salvation Army Berry Street, 225 Berry St., Nashville, Tennessee 37207 on Sunday mornings @ 10:45.