3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3-4 ESV)
Ok, I will admit, I may at times act childish. However, this is not what Jesus was talking about in our scripture today. No, He was looking for the innocence of a child. One who humbles himself like a child.
Now, His disciples were asking this to understand who would be greatest in heaven. But in reality is being greatest what we should be striving for? No, humble and innocent is what we should be striving for. The outcome of heaven is in God’s hands and He judges in ways we do not well understand. Thus, our striving should be to be lower than others, not greater.
This is, of course, the polar opposite of what the world teaches us. The world only lifts up the winners. Second place or second best is never something that is a mark to reach. However, when we do stop striving to be number one and humble ourselves we may find that second becomes first.
In humbling ourselves and working more for others than we do ourselves we may find that others see us as first or greatest. Their perception changes because we are not striving to be above them, but to lift them up. Making others better will often lead to others thinking of us as first.
