Upon awakening her 2-year-old son, Spencer, Marisa Aud was shocked to find him trembling and ill. Not knowing what to do, she held him in her arms as he asked to go outside. Complying to his request, she took her son to sit on the back porch, and they sat peacefully overlooking a forest of trees as wind fluttered through the leafy branches.
“Mamma, the trees are clapping! The trees are clapping!” declared Spencer.
Overcome with astonishment, Marisa marveled at the significance of her son’s words. Her 2-year-old had overstepped his vocabulary boundaries and proclaimed the glory of God in the exact words of Isaiah in chapter 55: “For you shall go out with joy, [a]nd be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills [s]hall break forth into singing before you, [a]nd all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, [a]nd instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, [f]or an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off” (12-13, NKJV).
One may ask how a child this young could recognize God in the intricate parts of life, but the answer is easy. God speaks to children as surely as he speaks to teenagers and adults. In fact, He values the innocence of a childlike attitude. In Matthew 18:3, He reveals that “unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (NKJV).
Obviously, children offer important insight into intimacy with Christ, but what?
Children trust their parents; they know that when they hunger, their parents will feed them. Because of this, they do not hesitate to ask for their desires. Oftentimes, they take this to an extreme, begging for toys in the grocery store, or bugging their parents for a certain type of cereal.
Of course, God does not want us to whine, but He has given us the power to vocalize our needs and wants. Children continue to beg, over and over again. This persistence directly translates into our spiritual lives.
As a child, I prayed to God every night that certain unsaved members of my family would come to know salvation. Even when no change appeared, I continued to petition on behalf of those loved ones. Recently, I realized that I no longer pray consistently for them. No wonder they still do not know God!
God desires that we would come before him as a child: open, innocent and trusting to His ways, and when we persist in prayer, He will turn His ear to us, just as unto a child.
“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 19:14, NKJV).
