What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Many Protestant ministers dedicate a few minutes of Sunday services to the children. My dad was one of those ministers. He called it the Children's Sermon.

One Sunday, while pastoring a small congregation near Carroll, Iowa, Dad asked the youngsters to come up for the Children's Sermon. They sat all around him, with upturned faces.

The question of the day was this: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

One little boy had the answer. He waved his hand excitedly. Finally, Dad called on him. Would he say a fireman? Or a policeman? Or a doctor?

No. None of these.

"I wanna be a gwoan-up."

Everybody laughed. "And I bet that's what your mother is hoping you'll be, I'm sure."

But the truth is, we are not asked to be grown-ups when we get all grown up. Our Lord says we must become as little children in order to inherit the Kingdom.

Children love with innocent hearts, fully and deeply. Completely. We must learn to love God and each other like this.

But children also have the same capacity to trust their fathers and mothers. Fully and deeply. Competely.

And we must learn to trust God that much.

I think it is easier to love like a child. It is much more difficult to trust like a child.

No matter what happens today (or tonight or tomorrow or next week), I trust that You, Oh Lord, are ordering all things well.

Even when others let me down - especially when others let me down - I will remember that you are still fully in control and working all things for my good . . . and the good of the Church.

What do I want to be when I grow up? Not a gwoan-up. I want to be a little child.