Why so serious?

Matthew 19:14

"But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

I have a pretty long commute in the mornings.  Last night I was on my bike for nearly two hours and was less than thrilled about getting up this morning and fighting traffic.  But, I successfully navigated the sleeping children and dogs on my floor and dressed in the dark without waking anyone, grabbed my keys, kissed my wife and got in the car for my ride to work.  Traffic was a bear.  School has just started and as I drive to each major intersection it takes many itterations of the signals changing for me to get through.  My back windows are not working and sometime the wind comes in at just the right frequency to be quite possibly the most annoying sound on earth, and this morning happened to by one of those lucky days.  The speed limit is 70 MPH on the interstate and we have people that choose to hunker down in the left lane going significantly slower than that.  I do understand.  Afterall, if they went any faster they might drop their cigarette from the left hand in the coffee in the right then have to pause in their phone conversation to remedy the situation.  This morning, I was noticing it all and I was not happy about any of it.  But then the radio caught my attention.

There was a quick teaser from the radio personality stating that we would be talking with Todd Burpo the author of a book titled Heaven is For Real.  I thought quickly (and judgementally) to myself, "This is that fellow who is claiming his kid went to heaven.  What a schemer!"  The radio played another song as I reflected on my thoughts about how dispicable this guy was for putting his kid out there like this.  After a quick commercial, the host of the show welcomed his guest and asked him to explain the content of his book.  Within seconds, I felt like a heel.  I had formed my analytical conclusions without any data.  I had based my initial thoughts on things I had read partially and briefly from mainstream media outlets.  I had not heard Mr. Burpo speak.  I had not heard his story.  But he said something that made me realize he was simply a father.  Mr. Burpo's son, Colton, had suffered from a ruptured appendix for 5 days before doctors realized what was going on.  He was 4 years old.  It is my understanding that while in surgery Colton flatlined and during this time went to Heaven.  Mr. Burpo, in his interview, did not spend too much time on the more fascinating parts of the story such as Colton meeting his unborn sister or spending time with his deceased grandfather, he kept saying, "He knew where I was and what I was doing while he was in surgery, and no one knew that information".  It was simply stated.  I thought about my own children and how I put faith in their words to me because they are not yet too influenced by the world around them to conjure fantastic stories.  They simply state the facts and learn from our reactions.

Jesus says, "Let the children come to me", and this draws some puzzled looks from his disciples.  But Jesus explains himself that all who find him will be childlike.  I think that this means that we must be humble, unassuming, and accepting of the Kingdom of Heaven that God has waiting for us to fully experience it.  A child is not tainted by the "traffic" of the earthly world and can see things without too much cloudiness.  I think this is what Jesus wants for us; to see him without constraints and to feel His love without conditions...agape.  It is very hard to remove the cynicism of our lives and achieve this innocence of faith, but maybe the key to removing the cynicism is to return to our faith for strength.

Well, that is what I thought about on my commute this morning!

I worked in 22 miles on the bike last night.  I felt it this morning, because I had a high resistance set on the trainer.  I hope to do a quick ride tomorrow morning and get some roadwork in on Saturday.