An Easter Thought

At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.   Matt 18:1-5

One of the paradoxes of wilderness survival is that kids ages 5-to-8 have survival rates far in excess of what would be expected based on their mental and physical abilities while kids ages 12-through-18 have much lower survival rates than one might expect.

The usual explanation for this phenomena is that younger kids sleep when they are tired, get out of the wind when they are cold, eat when they are hungry and drink when they are thirsty.

Older kids have a much more highly developed denial mechanism and are deathly afraid of being "uncool" or losing status in their posse. The intellectual and emotional construct of "group" blinds them to reality. "Group" becomes a lens that bends and distorts reality.

I am pretty sure Jesus was not talking about surviving in the wilderness. But I would not bet money that He wasn't talking about people substituting "Group narratives" for the realities that He places in front of us every day.