Children are relentlessly human and live entirely in the moment. When they are hungry, they are hungry. When they play, they play. They are affectionate, they can be quite blunt, they are impressionable, and they quickly adapt to changes. They effortlessly learn, they pick up their mother tongue within a few years, and they believe in fairy tales. They are curious, test boundaries, and get dirty – a noisy ball of energy, as active as the days are long. To their parents’ relief they eventually get tired and fall asleep only to wake up in the morning and do it all over again.

To study children is to study humanity. When God created us, He created us as children first and adults second. I venture to say that our adulthood suffers when we didn’t have much of a childhood. I also believe that we experience a more successful adulthood when we stay in touch with our inner child.

Growing up and dealing with our responsibilities, there’s one thing that doesn’t change: we will always be sons and daughters. Even with our parents long gone, we are who we are thanks to our roots.

Estranged from God as we may be, we still come from Him. God fathered us; we are the result of His genius. It was His idea to create not only human beings, but an amazing array of astounding species that fills the universe today. What we see on Earth is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Jesus says not to hinder the children to come to Him. Why? He goes on to say: the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Faith is not complicated. We essentially accept what the Holy Spirit whispers in our heart, and we go for it. Embracing Jesus like a child would, we can rest assured that the kingdom of heaven is ours.