Here’s a good question for you: How many bureaucrats does it take to change a light bulb? The answer is two, one to assure us that everything possible is being done, while the other one screws the light bulb into the water faucet.
It’s just not in a bureaucracy that this happens. It’s a good summary of our lives. Assuring ourselves that everything possible is being done and then screwing the light bulb into the water faucet!
For every one of us there are parts of life that don’t work, they are lifeless, routine and yield no joy. The reason is that we’re still hoping to get light out of a bulb screwed into a faucet, still looking for joy where none is to be found.
But no need to give up! The Lord tells us the secret to enjoying his Kingdom, even with all of our flaws and limitations: become like little children. But what makes little children different from us?
First of all they know they are little, and they know they need the help of others who love them. Little children trust the people they meet and presume the best about them. They are meek and humble.
Little children think everything is possible and worth trying. You don’t hear a little child saying, “you can’t do that” or that will never work.” They only see the positive.
Little children are compassionate to those who are even smaller than more helpless than themselves. Legions of stray cats, scrawny dogs, and birds with broken wings could testify to that. They are loving.
Little children lack the attention span of adults. They have little physical strength, few skills, and only the sparsest of knowledge about the world. Yet they have what matters: they are transparently open and receptive to people, to God, to life. And that means that all that is good can get into their lives. They are open and dependent.
Imagine what wonderful people we would be – even with all of our faults – if only our hearts were that open and receptive. No love, no joy, no person would ever be locked out.
So let’s take the Lord’s advice to become like little children by opening the doors to our hearts.
Then God and the whole universe would be inside working for us and filling in those parts of us that are damaged or weak, even that part that keeps trying to screw the light bulb into the water faucet!
Some of the best things in life come in the smallest of packages!
