From a Baby’s Eyes

It’s 2026…and I am a grandfather.

(Many beats…)

How in the world did THAT happen??? (I mean existentially….not biologically).

Seriously, one day I’m the baby of the family and the next I’m receiving daily ads for walk-in bathtubs and AARP applications.

Despite the internal shock of it all, I am settling into the idea of grandfathering. In fact, last week I was able to spend a full week with our first grandchild, a little boy born in March of 2025. He hosted Michelle and I last week for a full 7 days (which was exceedingly kind of him since his schedule is packed).

It was a wonderful week, and I made of point of trying to really pay attention to him, to fully observe his reaction to the world around him. As I did so, it dawned on me that most of us are more like a 9-month-old than we might care to admit.

Seriously…..I noticed the same mood shifts that I notice in myself, and in others. One minute, he was smiling joyfully….laughing…..giggling…….offering his love and affection to anyone who might take notice. The next minute, he was protesting everything around him. Crying……screaming……unable to express what he was feeling but making sure we all knew he was feeling it. And this vacillation was a daily event.

Joy…….sadness…………..love…………..anger…………….serenity……………chaos.

And as I reflected on all of this during my drive home, it really hit me that I am the same way. My moods are often reactions to the world around me.

If I have a good, productive day at work, I’m happy.

If my favorite sports team wins, I am elated.

If my wife is receptive to me or positively affirms me, I feel good about myself.

But if my day was interrupted or stressful, I am irritable.

If I’m hungry, I get HANGRY.

If life is not the way I want it to be, I protest……with anger, discontent, depression, etc.

I may be able to express myself more eloquently than a 9-month-old (barely), but I still show the same reactivity to the world around me.

And as I thought about this, I thought about the section of scripture where Jesus tells His disciples that we should all “become like little children” and I wonder what He means by that, especially in light of the writings of the Apostle Paul where he chides the Corinthian church for still being “infants in Christ.” I mean, I know these two scriptures don’t refer to the same characteristics, but I still wondered how it all fit together.

In a nutshell, Jesus was telling us about a relational posture, and Paul was scolding the lack of spiritual maturity. Jesus was telling us to be “childlike” while Paul was warning us about being “childish.”

When Jesus encouraged them to become like “little children” He was referring to living in a posture of dependance and trust on the Lord.

You see, my grandson has no control over the world around him and that drives him crazy. He doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know. He simply knows that he is hungry and cannot feed himself yet. He knows his diaper needs changed and it is uncomfortable, so he cries. He instinctively knows he needs his parents for provision, love, and security……and he cries out for it. At times, he is at peace in this. He coos and smiles……he reaches for his mom or dad…..or his Mimi and Grandpa……and revels in the embrace.

At other times, his world is not how he wants it to be. He is hungry and needs to eat NOW. He is cold and cannot cover himself, so he screams. He is attached to his mother, so he protests if she leaves the room. He is not content.

I am like my grandson.

Sometimes, I recognize that I am dependent on the Lord and I lean into that. I turn to God in prayer. I find peace in spending time with Him. I let Him hold me and embrace the intimacy that comes with that.

But, at other times, life is not how I want it to be….and I protest. I complain about the things I’m not happy with. I long to escape into recreation or fantasy, just to avoid the hard parts of life. I cry or scream because I’m unhappy that I cannot control the choices of others, or the life situations that are out of my hands. I am not content either, just as my grandson is not.

What I am trying to learn and grow in is my willingness to surrender in my dependance on God. I am attempting to make the choice to lean into His embrace as my Father. I am trying to release the parts of life that are out of my control (and there are way more things like that than I care to admit), and to rest in my faith and trust that the Lord will take care of me. I am trying to learn to be, as Paul puts it to the Philippian church, “content in any and every situation” because of Christ’s presence in my life.

Maybe some of you can relate to my grandson and me.

Maybe you also vacillate between peace and chaos, joy, and discontent.

Maybe that’s what Jesus meant.

Not that faith should be naïve or unthinking, but that it should be honest. Dependent. Unashamed of need. A child doesn’t understand the world, but he knows who to reach for. He doesn’t argue his way into trust; he simply leans.

My grandson will grow out of this stage. He’ll learn to regulate, to reason, to self-soothe. That’s part of growing up. But I’m not so sure I should grow out of mine.

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned to protest instead of depend. To analyze instead of receive. To harden ourselves against disappointment rather than admit how much we still need help.

But maybe faith isn’t about having fewer questions. Maybe it’s about learning, again and again, where to place them.

And maybe becoming “like a child” doesn’t mean growing smaller… it means growing braver. Brave enough to trust. Brave enough to need. Brave enough to let ourselves be held.