“You trust God and don’t lean on yourself.” – Proverbs 3:5 (Austin Revised Version)

While sitting here at my desk tonight and pondering about what to write, I could hear my four year old son reading his bedtime Bible story with his mommy.  The story must have had something to do with God protecting His children, because I heard his little voice rise up and exclaim, quite firmly and unwavering, “Jesus come to your house and whack the bad guys!”  Then they began to discuss his memory verse from Sunday School.  He told his mom that he remembered it:

“You trust God and don’t lean on yourself.”

He’s four years old, and he has got Christianity down.  It isn’t theology.  It isn’t all the rules and regs that get attached.  Stripped down to it’s essence, our response to God is simply trust.  Blind.  Bold.  Straightforward.  It is “yes” and “Amen.”  No buts.  No what-ifs.  The essence of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ is faith.  And what is faith?  Trust. 

Childlike trust.

Kids have a wonderful way of seeing through all the junk and mess that litters our grown-up lives.  They aren’t worried about the bills.  They aren’t concerned about the shipwrecks of the world.  They don’t watch the news and wonder what the world is coming to.  They can see things in a pure way that can be tough for us adults.

The eternal perspective is far more important than any small trouble or tribulation or travail we face in this life.  I say “small” not to belittle the problems anyone faces, but simply to point out that all things – good and bad, great and small, triumphant and tragic – this world offers (or metes out) pale and shrink to insignificance in comparison to the greatness of God, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

How much better off would we grown-ups be if we could simply remind ourselves to trust God and “don’t lean on yourself”?