""Unless you change and become like a child you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."
These words, spoken by Jesus, were recorded in the book of Matthew chapter 18 verse 3, nineteen and a half centuries ago.
But what do they mean and why does it matter in the 21st Century?
Become like a child, enter the kingdom of heaven.......
Healthy children are loving and forgiving, they are trusting; they are playful and laugh easily; they are spontaneous and curious. They are enthusiastic.
In Christian metaphysics, "the kingdom of heaven", Jesus was referring to, is a state of mind or consciousness.
When we put these two ideas together we have an opportunity to see our lives in a new way.
If we have become hardened, unloving, unforgiving, and closed, we have limited joy in life.
We may even begin to suffer from illnesses such as heart disease, anxiety, insomnia, pain, and depression by holding resentment and hatred. Anyone who has experienced these conditions would be unlikely to describe them as "heaven."
There is an alternative. We can change our minds and hearts to become childlike; not to be confused with childish. We can practice forgiveness. We can practice looking for a reason to laugh at our own foibles. We can practice loving and forgiving ourselves for our errors and imperfections, which will help us learn to more easily forgive and love others. When we change our consciousness, we change our behaviors. Consequently, we begin to live in a different world; the Kingdom of Heaven.
If you take stock of your life today, and find that you are suffering and not living in heaven, you can change. This is what Master Jesus was teaching, twenty centuries ago, and it is still relevant now, today. You can change your mind and your heart, heal your inner child, and in doing so, you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.