Faith like a child

I thought about this phrase in a different way last night. The neighbor kids had knocked on our front door a total of five times, announcing their "yard sale" downstairs on the apartment's common lawn.

"Well, I'm making dinner right now" -- which I was -- "but I'll try to make it down after that" -- which I knew I probably wouldn't." Their faces lit up. "Thank you! Thank you!"

I can imagine their incredulity when it got dark outside and I had not yet shown. I remember that feeling. When you're young, a "try" or even solid "maybe" was as good as done. And when someone didn't follow through after promising the old college try, it was really pretty shocking. Why would someone say it's a possibility when it really isn't? What was stopping them?

If you're a kid with any decent childhood at all, it takes awhile for doubt to take root in our hearts.

I think this is what "child-like" faith is all about -- a strong sense of trust, if only because we have no reason to doubt. As a grown-up, I often find myself thinking exactly the opposite. When someone says they'll meet me at 5:30, I count on them being late (because they have been dozens of times). Then of course I'm bowled over when they make it.

Oh that I had that child-like faith -- not in the people around me, but in the only one who's never given me a reason to doubt.